China’s historic sea-based rocket recovery puts spotlight on domestic shipbuilder

After China became only the second nation after the US to achieve the controlled recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster, the spotlight has fallen on the domestic shipbuilder behind the design of the recovery platform. Following the maiden launch of China’s reusable Long March-10B rocket on Friday, the vehicle’s first-stage booster returned vertically and was caught by the Linghangzhe recovery platform, China’s first sea-based rocket recovery vessel to use a net-capture system. The platform.