China is catching up to Elon Musk’s reusable rockets

中国正在追赶埃隆·马斯克的重复使用火箭技术

China’s state-owned space company successfully launched a Long March orbital rocket and landed the booster on a seagoing recovery vessel, making it the second country to achieve the feat. The demonstration on Friday shows that China’s Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is poised to match the advance that catapulted SpaceX to the top of the heap: reusing the same booster again and again to drive down the cost of launching spacecraft. 中国国有航天企业成功发射了一枚长征系列运载火箭，并将助推器回收至海上回收船，使其成为全球第二个实现这一壮举的国家。周五的演示表明，中国航天科技集团（CASC）已准备好复刻那项将 SpaceX 推向行业巅峰的技术突破：通过反复重复使用同一助推器，大幅降低航天发射成本。

CASC said it would attempt to reuse the booster, which can carry about as much payload as SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9, by the end of the year. Instead of unfolding landing legs to settle onto a floating platform, as the Falcon 9 does, China’s approach uses netting strung across a large frame onboard a recovery ship to capture the descending rocket. The ability to get the rocket back to the ship in a controlled flight, however, depends on sophisticated guidance software and sensors, along with engines that are reliable enough to restart and rugged enough to survive the descent back through the atmosphere. 中国航天科技集团表示，计划在今年年底前尝试重复使用该助推器，其运载能力与 SpaceX 的主力火箭“猎鹰 9 号”相当。与“猎鹰 9 号”展开着陆支架降落在浮动平台上的方式不同，中国采用的方法是利用回收船上大型框架间张开的网来捕获下降的火箭。然而，要实现火箭受控飞行并返回船只，依赖于复杂的制导软件和传感器，以及足够可靠、能够重新启动并经受住重返大气层考验的发动机。

SpaceX is currently breaking launch records on an annual basis with its fleet of reusable Falcon 9 rocket boosters. The vehicle underpins the company’s Starlink satellite network, which depends on cheap, regular space access, as well as its work for NASA and the U.S. Space Force. SpaceX 目前凭借其可重复使用的“猎鹰 9 号”助推器机队，每年都在刷新发射纪录。该运载工具是该公司“星链”卫星网络的基础，该网络依赖于廉价且定期的太空进入能力，同时也支撑着 SpaceX 为美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和美国太空军提供的服务。

Victoria Samson, the chief director for Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation called the demonstration a “huge game changer…When China figures out how to reuse them, that is going to drop the launch of cost for them tremendously and then they could use it as part of their soft power outreach to launch things for potential allies very cheaply.” 安全世界基金会（Secure World Foundation）太空安全与稳定项目主任维多利亚·桑普森（Victoria Samson）称此次演示是“一个巨大的游戏规则改变者……一旦中国掌握了重复使用技术，将极大地降低其发射成本，进而可以将其作为软实力外交的一部分，以极低的成本为潜在盟友提供发射服务。”

China wouldn’t compete directly with Musk’s company for launch customers due to national security rules that effectively split the global market for rockets between the U.S. and Europe on one hand, and Russia and China on the other. However, a reusable rocket would enable China’s satellite communications networks and hypothetical orbital data centers to compete with SpaceX’s offerings. That would mean more competition for Starlink in global markets, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. For the U.S. military, it would mean a diminished advantage in space. 由于国家安全法规实际上将全球火箭市场划分为“美欧阵营”和“俄中阵营”，中国不会直接与马斯克的公司争夺商业发射客户。然而，可重复使用火箭将使中国的卫星通信网络和设想中的轨道数据中心能够与 SpaceX 的产品展开竞争。这意味着“星链”在全球市场，特别是在非洲、中东和东南亚地区，将面临更激烈的竞争。对于美国军方而言，这意味着其在太空领域的优势将被削弱。

The Long March booster recovery comes days after a consortium of investigative journalists reported new documents showing that China and Russia are cooperating on ways to damage Starlink because of its successes in Ukraine. Unless, that is, SpaceX can get its much larger Starship rocket flying successfully. The last attempt to launch the rocket ended with mixed results at best, but Musk’s newly public conglomerate is expected to make another attempt this month. A static fire test of the huge booster appeared to go off without a hitch today. 在长征火箭助推器回收成功的前几天，一个调查记者联盟披露了新文件，显示中国和俄罗斯正就如何破坏“星链”进行合作，原因在于该系统在乌克兰冲突中的成功表现。除非 SpaceX 能让其规模更大的“星舰”火箭成功飞行。该火箭的上次发射尝试结果好坏参半，但马斯克新上市的集团预计将在本月进行下一次尝试。今天，该巨型助推器的静态点火测试似乎进行得非常顺利。

The U.S. has other companies trying to develop reusable rockets, notably Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which recovered a booster in 2025 and reused it earlier this year. Blue Origin saw one of its rockets explode on the launch pad in May, delaying any further attempts for now. Rocket Lab has been working on Neutron, which is intended to fly with a reusable booster, while Stoke Space is developing a fully reusable rocket that it hopes to test this year. 美国还有其他公司也在尝试开发可重复使用火箭，其中最著名的是杰夫·贝索斯的蓝色起源（Blue Origin），该公司在 2025 年回收了一枚助推器，并于今年早些时候实现了重复使用。蓝色起源的一枚火箭在 5 月份于发射台上发生爆炸，导致后续尝试暂时推迟。火箭实验室（Rocket Lab）一直在研发“中子”号（Neutron）火箭，旨在配备可重复使用的助推器；而 Stoke Space 公司正在开发一种完全可重复使用的火箭，并希望在今年进行测试。