China's new rocket heats up space race, challenging SpaceX

China successfully recovered a Long March-10B rocket booster using net capture at sea, demonstrating progress towards reusable launch systems that could lower costs and accelerate satellite deployment. The achievement directly challenges SpaceX's current dominance in low-cost, rapid-cadence space access. If you're building satellite services, Earth observation, or space-based comms, your launch cost assumption just changed. China proved net-capture recovery works; when they perfect cadence, SpaceX's pricing power evaporates and your unit economics flip.