Russian media collectively applaud: China's first successful return of a rocket’s first stage to an offshore platform!
World-first offshore net capture solution.
Today, multiple Russian media outlets including Sputnik News Agency, TASS, and Izvestia have extensively covered the event.
Sputnik News Agency (Russia’s official authoritative international propaganda outlet):
Characterized as a historic technological milestone, clearly identifying two core facts:
China has become the second country in the world to master full recovery capability of orbital-class first-stage rockets;
The offshore net capture method is a uniquely original approach worldwide, distinct from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 relying on landing legs for hard landings.
Emphasized key advantages of net capture technology:
Eliminates heavy landing legs, increasing rocket payload capacity by 5%–7%;
Larger tolerance for errors during capture, reducing precision requirements for re-entry control; offshore floating platforms can avoid risks associated with debris falling on land, simultaneously enhancing safety and launch efficiency.
Assessed industrial and strategic value: Reusable rockets will significantly reduce costs for low-Earth orbit satellite constellations and crewed lunar missions. China’s competitiveness in commercial spaceflight has markedly improved, breaking America’s long-standing technical monopoly in the reusable launch vehicle arena.
TASS (Russia’s national news agency) commentary: Objectively and comprehensively disclosed mission parameters, providing factual and neutral reporting throughout—without downplaying achievements. Noted that this successful recovery clears a critical obstacle for low-cost launches needed before China’s crewed lunar landing plan by 2030.
Izvestia (Russia’s mainstream mass political news outlet) praised China’s self-reliant development path.
Commented: It took U.S. private enterprises over a decade and extensive trial-and-error to mature vertical recovery technology;
China achieved this independently through its state-run aerospace system, while concurrently advancing two separate, independent routes—land-based vertical recovery (Long March 8R) and offshore net capture—demonstrating comprehensive and balanced technical reserves, forging a reusable spaceflight model independent of Western influence.
Vokrugsveta (Russia’s professional space science popularization media):
Offshore net capture represents an entirely new paradigm in rocket recovery, proving that “landing legs touching down” is not the only standard answer. This offers fresh technological inspiration for global space development; Europe and Russia alike can draw valuable lessons from this flexible capture approach.
All Russian media jointly pointed out: Both China and Russia have plans for crewed lunar missions, large-scale space stations, and deep-space exploration—making reusable rockets a shared necessity for both nations;
China’s low-cost offshore recovery technology holds future potential for technical exchanges and joint launch cooperation.
Currently, global space activities are entering a tripartite balance among China, the United States, and Russia. By closing the gap in reusable rocket technology, China has significantly enhanced its multilateral space cooperation clout, effectively countering U.S. unilateral technological blockade in outer space.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870373096345732/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.