China recovered its first reusable rocket and showed a new way to do it
China recovered its first reusable rocket and showed a new way to do it
中国首次回收可重复使用火箭，并展示了全新的回收方式
China’s sprawling state-owned rocket developer, maker of the country’s Long March rocket family, announced it recovered a reusable orbital-class booster for the first time Friday in the South China Sea. The milestone mission began with the liftoff of a Long March 10B rocket from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province.
中国庞大的国有火箭开发商（长征系列火箭的制造商）宣布，周五在南海首次成功回收了一枚可重复使用的轨道级助推器。这项里程碑式的任务始于长征十号乙（Long March 10B）火箭从中国最南端省份海南岛的文昌商业航天发射场升空。
Powered by seven kerosene-fueled engines, the approximately 209-foot-tall (63.6-meter) rocket took off at 12:15 am EDT (04:15 UTC), or 12:15 pm local time at the seaside spaceport at Wenchang. About 10 minutes later, the Long March 10B booster descended from space and guided itself into a four-legged frame affixed to an offshore vessel. Tensioned cables stretched over the ship in a grid pattern captured the rocket as it shut down its landing engines, leaving the smoldering booster hanging in midair.
这枚高约 209 英尺（63.6 米）的火箭由七台煤油发动机驱动，于美国东部时间凌晨 12:15（协调世界时 04:15），即文昌海滨航天港当地时间中午 12:15 起飞。约 10 分钟后，长征十号乙助推器从太空降落，并引导自身进入固定在海上回收船上的四脚框架内。当火箭关闭着陆发动机时，船上呈网格状张紧的缆绳将其捕获，使冒着烟的助推器悬挂在半空中。
The rocket’s upper stage continued into orbit and deployed a payload known only as CX-26. Chinese officials hailed the flight as a “complete success.” “A historic day in China’s space program!” wrote Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, on X. “China’s Long March 10B has successfully completed its maiden flight—and recovered its first stage via a sea-based net. This marks the country’s first-ever controlled rocket recovery. A major leap toward reusable launch capabilities.”
火箭上面级继续进入轨道，并部署了一颗仅被称为“CX-26”的载荷。中国官方称此次飞行“圆满成功”。中国外交部发言人毛宁在 X（原推特）上写道：“中国航天史上历史性的一天！长征十号乙火箭成功完成首飞，并通过海上拦阻网回收了第一级。这标志着中国首次实现受控火箭回收，是迈向可重复使用发射能力的一大步。”
The landing on Friday makes the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and its subsidiary, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the third enterprise to accomplish this feat. SpaceX did it with its Falcon 9 rocket in 2015 and with its Starship/Super Heavy booster in 2024. Blue Origin landed its New Glenn booster on an offshore platform for the first time last November.
周五的着陆使中国航天科技集团（CASC）及其子公司中国运载火箭技术研究院（CALT）成为全球第三家实现这一壮举的企业。SpaceX 分别在 2015 年（猎鹰 9 号）和 2024 年（星舰/超重型助推器）实现了这一目标。蓝色起源公司则在去年 11 月首次将其“新格伦”助推器降落在海上平台上。
SpaceX and Blue Origin use propulsive landings to return their Falcon 9 and New Glenn boosters to offshore platforms or onshore landing pads. With Starship, SpaceX pioneered a new method of catching the rocket’s reusable booster back at its launch pad using mechanical arms mounted to the launch tower. The Long March 10B employs a different approach for recovery, combining an offshore vessel floating downrange with the catch technique somewhat like what SpaceX uses for Starship.
SpaceX 和蓝色起源使用动力着陆方式，将猎鹰 9 号和“新格伦”助推器返回海上平台或陆上着陆场。对于“星舰”，SpaceX 开创了一种新方法，即利用安装在发射塔上的机械臂在发射台捕获可重复使用的助推器。长征十号乙采用了不同的回收方案，结合了远海漂浮的回收船与类似于 SpaceX“星舰”的捕获技术。
Catching the rocket in this way reduces the effect of reuse on payload capacity. The Long March 10B doesn’t have to carry the extra mass of landing legs, and recovering it downrange reduces how much fuel the rocket must consume during its descent. In a statement, CASC said the Long March 10B test flight “validated key core technologies” for a reusable launch architecture, such as multiple engine restarts with high-altitude ignition, high-precision navigation and control, and the first capture and recovery using a net system on a sea-based platform.
以这种方式捕获火箭减少了重复使用对有效载荷能力的影响。长征十号乙无需携带额外的着陆支架重量，且在远海回收减少了火箭在下降过程中必须消耗的燃料。中国航天科技集团在一份声明中表示，长征十号乙的试飞“验证了可重复使用发射架构的关键核心技术”，例如高空点火的多引擎重启、高精度导航与控制，以及首次在海上平台使用拦阻网系统进行捕获回收。
Friday’s launch was the first flight of the Long March 10B, a medium-lift rocket with a payload capacity of approximately 16 metric tons (35,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit. This is slightly less than the lift capacity of SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The Long March 10B has two stages, with seven YF-100K engines on the booster consuming kerosene and liquid oxygen, and a single methane-fueled YF-219 engine on the second stage.
周五的发射是长征十号乙的首飞，这是一款中型运载火箭，其近地轨道运载能力约为 16 公吨（35,000 磅），略低于 SpaceX 猎鹰 9 号的运载能力。长征十号乙为两级火箭，助推器配备七台使用煤油和液氧的 YF-100K 发动机，第二级则配备一台使用甲烷的 YF-219 发动机。
“Moving forward, the Long March 10B development team will continue to optimize the vehicle’s performance and accelerate the iterative upgrading of reusable rocket technologies,” CASC said. “The first stage reuse flight test is expected to be completed by the end of this year.”
中国航天科技集团表示：“未来，长征十号乙研发团队将继续优化火箭性能，加速可重复使用火箭技术的迭代升级。预计今年年底前完成第一级重复使用飞行试验。”
The Long March 10B is similar to China’s Long March 10A rocket, which is still awaiting its first full-scale test flight. The Long March 10A has the same first stage booster as the Long March 10B, but a different upper stage and a payload fairing to accommodate cargo and satellites. The Long March 10A, on the other hand, is designed for future crew launches to China’s Tiangong space station using the country’s new human-rated spaceship, the Mengzhou, replacing China’s Shenzhou crew capsule and the Long March 2F rocket used to power it into orbit.
长征十号乙与中国长征十号甲（Long March 10A）火箭相似，后者目前仍在等待首次全尺寸试飞。长征十号甲与长征十号乙使用相同的助推器，但拥有不同的上面级和用于容纳货物及卫星的整流罩。长征十号甲的设计目标是未来使用中国新型载人飞船“梦舟”向中国天宫空间站运送航天员，以取代目前使用的神舟载人飞船和长征二号 F 火箭。
Chasing the Moon / 逐月之旅
A heavier configuration, known simply as the Long March 10, is a key part of China’s Moon program. This more powerful rocket will combine three Long March 10 first stage boosters—each reusable—together to generate more thrust at liftoff. A second stage and third stage will propel Chinese astronauts and their lunar landers toward the Moon. The Chinese government says it aims to land its citizens on the Moon by 2030.
一种被称为“长征十号”的重型构型是中国登月计划的关键部分。这种更强大的火箭将捆绑三枚长征十号一级助推器（均可重复使用），以在起飞时产生更大的推力。第二级和第三级将推动中国航天员及其月球着陆器前往月球。中国政府表示，目标是在 2030 年前实现载人登月。
Friday’s launch was a small step toward that goal. China launched a scaled-down version of the Long March 10A rocket in February with a prototype of the Meng舟 capsule to test the spacecraft’s launch abort system, which would trigger to whisk crew members away from a failing rocket. The Mengzhou test went well, and remarkably, the Long March 10A continued flying after the capsule fired away from the booster, eventually coming back to Earth for a controlled splashdown at sea. The Long March 10B took this achievement a step further with a midair catch.
周五的发射是实现这一目标的一小步。今年 2 月，中国发射了长征十号甲的缩比版本，搭载了“梦舟”飞船原型机，以测试航天器的发射逃逸系统（在火箭故障时将航天员带离）。“梦舟”测试进展顺利，值得注意的是，在飞船从助推器上分离后，长征十号甲继续飞行，最终返回地球并在海上受控溅落。长征十号乙通过半空捕获，将这一成就更进一步。
Multiple commercial and government-backed Chinese rocket companies are trying to level the playing field with the United States. China is the world’s second-largest spacefaring nation, but US companies, dominated by SpaceX, are launching payloads into orbit about twice as often as Chinese rockets. SpaceX’s blistering launch cadence is made possible by the partially reusable Falcon 9, something Blue Origin and Chinese companies are seeking to emulate.
多家中国商业和政府支持的火箭公司正试图缩小与美国的差距。中国是世界第二大航天国家，但以 SpaceX 为首的美国公司进入轨道的发射频率约为中国的两倍。SpaceX 惊人的发射频率得益于部分可重复使用的猎鹰 9 号，这也是蓝色起源和中国公司竞相效仿的目标。