The internet abroad has gone wild! Bloomberg, the BBC from the UK, and Reuters have all reported immediately. On July 10, after our successful rocket recovery, Bloomberg published an article stating that China has become the second country in the world to successfully recover a orbital-class reusable booster, marking its first achievement in maritime recovery of such a system. The U.S. media noted this indicates that, following SpaceX—founded by Elon Musk—and Blue Origin—owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—China may now be poised to challenge America's dominance in the field of reusable rockets.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported that in February this year, China made its first attempt at recovering a reusable rocket using the Long March 10A rocket. Although the rocket achieved controlled descent, it ultimately splashed down near the recovery platform. This time, however, China successfully used the Long March 10B rocket to deliver at least 16 tons of payload into low Earth orbit and complete the recovery—a feat often compared with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. However, clearly, the technology employed by China differs significantly from that of SpaceX.

Reuters stated that China successfully tested an experimental rocket recovery system on Friday, one that uses nets attached to offshore platforms. China aims to break America’s dominance in the reusable rocket sector. This test marks China’s first successful recovery of an orbital-class rocket, advancing its development of reusable launch vehicles further. Clearly, the intense attention from Western media reflects their awareness that this successful recovery represents a significant technological leap, delivering another psychological shock to Western perceptions of China.

This successful recovery has sparked heated discussion online abroad. Many believe that the domain where the U.S. once held a clear lead is now facing a new competitor, as China rapidly catches up. Of course, we must acknowledge that the U.S. commercial space industry in reusable rocket technology has already matured into a highly developed industrial ecosystem, whereas China still has some distance to go before achieving stable commercial operations. Nevertheless, the technological gap between China and the U.S. is undoubtedly narrowing rapidly.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870311054133258/

Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.