China to test capsule further, attempt booster recoveries on land and sea

China is set to perform additional testing of its Mengzhou crew capsule following a successful splashdown test last month. Meanwhile, both commercial and state-owned launch providers are moving closer to attempting propulsive landings of first-stage boosters on land and at sea, as the country seeks to secure its first successful recovery of an orbital-class booster.

Following the successful in-flight abort test of the Mengzhou capsule on Feb. 11th, the spacecraft will remain in Hainan province to conduct further tests at sea, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

This was a significant test of the next-generation Mengzhou, or “Dream Vessel,” crew capsule, which is designed to carry Chinese astronauts to low-Earth orbit and towards the Moon. The capsule will supersede the current Shenzhou crew capsules for missions to and from the Tiangong space station in time, and is a critical part of China’s more ambitious plans to land astronauts on the lunar surface before the end of the decade.

Mengzhou capsule executes the in-flight abort maneuver on Feb 11th 2026 (Credit: CNSA)

The uncrewed Mengzhou capsule lifted off from pad LC-301 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island, atop a prototype booster for the single-core Chang Zheng 10A, which is still in development. The full heavy-lift rocket, which will eventually launch both the Mengzhou capsule and the Lanyue lander on separate missions, is expected to make its debut later this year.

As the booster headed towards the Kármán line at supersonic speed, it reached the point of maximum dynamic pressure, otherwise known as “Max Q.” This is the stage at which the abort system must overcome the most aerodynamic drag if it is to pull the capsule away from danger in the event of an emergency. During this process, the spacecraft’s systems execute almost one hundred concurrent instructions in the space of one second, including pyrotechnic separation, with millisecond precision.

While the booster’s engines continued to run, the capsule’s abort motors succeeded in pulling Mengzhou away safely, allowing it to slowly descend under three parachutes and make a soft splashdown in the South China Sea.

Nanhaijiu 118 ship recovers the Mengzhou capsule (Credit: Xinhua)

NASA and SpaceX have conducted similar in-flight abort tests for the Orion and Dragon capsules. The test is a key step in achieving a human-rating for crewed vehicles, simulating an emergency where the crew needs to escape from the launcher during ascent. This was the third significant test for the prototype capsule, following earlier airdrop testing and “zero-altitude” abort testing last June.

Additional tests will next evaluate how the capsule is able to remain buoyant and stable for longer periods of time while it awaits recovery — potentially in less than ideal sea conditions.

Completing this in-flight abort test is a major milestone for China’s crewed lunar exploration program and its first maritime recovery of a return capsule, demonstrating that it can recover crewed spacecraft from both sea and land. While this test validated a sea recovery, Mengzhou will typically land within the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This is the same location where the crewed Shenzhou craft currently touch down at the end of a mission.

Illustration of the Mengzhou and Lanyue (Credit: CMSA)

An uncrewed orbital demonstration flight of the Mengzhou capsule is planned later this year, when it will dock with the Tiangong space station. Designed for reuse from the outset, the capsule only requires replacement of its lightweight, removable heat shield structure between missions.

Booster Recovery Platform

However, the capsule wasn’t the only vehicle being tested with this launch, as the booster also demonstrated a controlled re-entry and a splashdown of its own. The test was also the first low-altitude flight of a prototype of the reusable Chang Zheng 10 first-stage. Once it had passed its perigee at around 105 km, the highest point in the booster’s trajectory, it began an unpowered descent using four grid fins to guide it back to a pre-designated landing zone.

Five YF-100K engines power the booster, burning rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen. Three of these engines were reignited for an entry burn, and then again for a landing burn, reducing to just one engine for the controlled vertical splashdown.

Chang Zheng 10A prototype booster performs controlled vertical splashdown (Credit: CCTV)

The stage was swiftly retrieved from the sea following the Feb. 11th test. CASC has spent the past couple of years testing the engines for reuse, and the booster’s five engines are the first to have been recovered from seawater and will now undergo detailed inspections and potentially further firings.

Although this first test conducted a controlled vertical landing in the sea, future missions plan to “catch” the booster on the ship that was stationed nearby during the recent test.

The Linghangzhe, which translates to “Pathfinder,” is an autonomous rocket recovery platform measuring around 144 meters long and 50 meters wide. This splashdown is said to have also tested the ship’s own systems to simulate catching the booster on future attempts.

The Linghangzhe (“Pathfinder”) Booster Catch Platform (Credit: CCTV)

Rather than propulsively landing on the deck of a ship, this approach to “catching” the first stage booster also differs from the “chopstick” approach employed by SpaceX for Starship. Instead, the platform will employ a unique cable-catching system using a moveable array of tensioned steel cables, supported by a raised frame.

At least four arresting hooks will deploy outward from the booster’s interstage to snag these cables as it performs a controlled propulsive hover and descends between them.

This arresting-cable system is deliberately designed to be more forgiving and lighter on the rocket than landing on a pad, and easier to refurbish. Dampening systems will absorb the vertical energy, leaving the booster hanging above the deck. The system reportedly provides a generous capture window with tens of meters of tolerance, while real-time communications between the ship and booster refine the precision alignment.

Original schematics for the booster catch system with arresting hooks (Credit: CALT/CASC)

The ship, with its distinct silhouette, has since been seen anchored off the coast of Xiamen in the Fujian Province, at least 900 km away. Xiamen hosts one of China’s most important deep-water container ports and is a major international shipping hub. After preparations in Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, the ship left port for the recovery test in early February, so Xiamen may now be the ship’s operational base.

The next flight of a CZ-10A could now precede the expected maiden flight of its sibling CZ-10B cargo variation, which has been planned for April. According to the vehicle’s Chief Designer, Rong Yi, the next vehicle will be transported to Wenchang soon. This vehicle will likely represent the production configuration of the CZ-10A, and may even conduct the first cable-catch recovery attempt.

The crew aboard Mengzhou may, alternatively, need to perform a different kind of escape, via a cable and basket system similar to that of Florida’s Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40). While the new LC-301 pad at Wenchang is essentially completed, this is a crew-related feature that has yet to be added. The crew emergency egress system will enable the astronauts to rapidly leave the vehicle while it is still on the pad, in the event of a pre-launch emergency.

The shorter Chang Zheng 10A prototype ascends from Pad 301 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center (Credit: CCTV)

The launch pad’s crew access corridor is traditionally a rotating service arm on the launch tower, and for Shenzhou mission launches from Jiuquan, the rotating platform wraps around the entire Chang Zheng 2F rocket at Site 91.

For launches of the taller Chang Zheng-10 (CZ-10) family, crew servicing and maintenance access will be integrated directly into the mobile launch platform, simplifying the structure and design of the fixed tower. Two crew access arms, similar to those used to access Crew Dragon, are expected to provide access to the taller CZ-10 Mengzhou stack and the shorter CZ-10A.

The LC-301 pad has been built specifically for the CZ-10 vehicles and will be completed later in the year, in advance of the first crewed Mengzhou mission.

iSpace droneship seen from above (Credit: iSpace)

Commercial Launch Providers

Meanwhile, commercial launch provider iSpace intends to propulsively land its Shuang Quxian-3 (or Hyperbola-3) at sea on its own droneship, the Xingji Guihang (or “Interstellar Return”). The vehicle’s maiden flight has already slipped into this year and, while the initial flights will most likely target a splashdown, the program could deliver China’s first orbital-class maritime booster landing later this year. The vehicle has a similar form-factor and height to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, including grid fins and plans for fold-down landing legs.

China has yet to successfully land an orbital-class booster but is edging closer to achieving this, potentially as soon as its third attempt. The country’s commercial market has a number of new reusable designs due to debut this year, with CAS Space’s Lijian-2 (Kinetica-2) and Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 expected to launch in the coming month or two. Neither of these vehicles will attempt reusability on their maiden flights, however, so eyes will be on Beijing-based Landspace and its partially reusable Zhuque-3.

The vehicle’s maiden launch in December successfully reached orbit, but an engine anomaly prevented the first stage from slowing sufficiently for a soft touchdown, despite it approaching the landing zone on target. Landspace described the failure as an “abnormal combustion event” and has reiterated its confidence in propulsively landing its Zhuque-3 booster on its second flight, for which it currently targets April to June.

View from the launch tower as Landspace ZhuQue-3 launches on Dec. 3 (Credit: Landspace)

The company even plans to re-fly a recovered first stage before the end of the year, as it matures Zhuque-3 into a reusable launch system that will carry China’s mega-constellations and more. Landspace has been further testing and validating deployment mechanisms that use non-pyrotechnic mechanisms to unlatch and release satellites in sequence.

Elsewhere, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology intends to fly its Chang Zheng 12A (CZ-12A) again, which was less successful at landing the first stage on its maiden flight in December. One of the vehicle’s three Longyun-70 engines failed to relight on the landing burn, and it subsequently missed the pad by around 2 km, resulting in an explosive hard landing. The boosters’ seven Longyun engines burn liquid methane and oxygen in a gas generator cycle, whereas its sibling, the Chang Zheng 12B (CZ-12B), will instead use nine YF-102R engines burning liquid kerosene and oxygen, and are more akin to upgraded YF-100 family technology.

The first CZ-12B is currently undergoing final integration and checkout stage following a successful first-stage static fire in January at Jiuquan’s Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone. The launch is anticipated to take place in March or April, likely ahead of another CZ-12A launch. Following in its sibling’s footsteps, the vehicle will also attempt a propulsive landing of its first stage downrange in the Gobi Desert.

Render of the CZ-12B (Credit: CACL / CASC)

The coming months will determine how swiftly China closes the booster recovery gap and brings its first orbital booster safely home — perhaps even to fly again.

(Lead image: Nanhaijiu 118 ship approaches the Mengzhou capsule for recovery. Credit: Xinhua)

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