The Long March 12B is a two-stage rocket with a reusable first stage.

Designed as a two-stage rocket with a reusable first stage, the Long March 12B stands about 70 metres tall and is powered by nine engines on its booster stage. Like Falcon 9, it uses kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants. Despite its reusable design, CASC did not attempt to recover the booster during the rocket’s debut mission. The company said booster landing demonstrations will be carried out on future flights. SpaceX, in comparison, has successfully landed Falcon 9 first-stage boosters hundreds of times, making reusability a core part of its launch operations. The Long March 12B is not the only Chinese rocket being developed with reusability in mind. CASC’s Long March 12A attempted a booster landing during its maiden flight in December 2025. While the rocket successfully reached orbit, the landing attempt was unsuccessful. China’s private space companies are also pursuing reusable launch technology. Landspace’s Zhuque-3 rocket completed its first orbital mission in December 2025 but failed to recover its booster. Another reusable rocket, Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3, completed its first flight on April 3, 2026, but the mission failed. Also Read: Nasa prepares to introduce 4-person Artemis 3 crew for upcoming lunar mission Several other Chinese companies are currently developing reusable launch vehicles. These include CAS Space’s Kinetica-2, Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1 and Deep Blue Aerospace’s Nebula 1. These projects highlight how China is trying to develop its reusable rockets and expand its presence in the space industry. Though SpaceX is leading when it comes to reusing rockets, the successful launch of the Long March 12B signals China’s intent to try the same thing.

Future spacecraft could use a single propellant to perform both rapid movements and slow, highly controlled adjustments.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes fell on Tuesday as a rebound in technology shares faded.

Alphabet entered a cloud service agreement with SpaceX to pay $920 million per month for 200 megawatts of capacity from October 2026 through June 2029.