– China has successfully landed a reusable rocket for the first time, marking a “historic breakthrough” for the country’s space technology.

The Long March 10B rocket was launched from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site in south China’s Hainan Province.

After separation of its two stages, the first stage returned and was successfully caught upright on sea-borne net-capture platform.

The rocket also flew a satellite into “its predetermined orbit” on Friday, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“Approximately six minutes after the first and second stages separated, the first stage returned vertically and was successfully recovered at a sea-based recovery platform using a net system,” China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said in a statement.

“It signifies a historic breakthrough for my country in the field of reusable rocket technology and will lay a solid foundation for accelerating the improvement of my country’s space access capabilities,” CASC said.

China’s Long March 10B rocket has been compared to the SpaceX Falcon 9.

Developed by the country’s main state rocket developer, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), it is capable of carrying a payload of at least 16 metric tons to low-Earth orbit.

But unlike the Elon Musk-owned company’s pioneering rocket, the Long March 10B does not autonomously use deployable legs to land on a ship or a ground-based pad.

Instead, it uses “landing hooks” to latch onto the net attached to a sea-borne platform, Xinhua reported.

“Net-based recovery helps simplify the rocket’s onboard structure, reduces vehicle mass and increases payload capacity. It is also highly adaptable to landing-point deviations, as coordinated net ⁠systems can effectively expand the capture window,” CALT expert Chen Muye told Chinese state media.

So far, SpaceX has demonstrated rocket recovery in 2015, followed by the Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin in November last year.

SpaceX has launched its Falcon 9 nearly 150 times a year, and even reused its recovered rocket dozens of times.

Meanwhile, China has spent nearly a decade developing reusable rockets, first testing low-altitude space vehicles and later experimenting with long-range orbital-class booster recovery.

The Long March-10B rocket is a reusable liquid-fueled vehicle built for commercial launches and stands approximately 63m (206ft) tall with a diameter of 5m (16ft).

Its first stage burns kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX), while the second stage uses LOX and liquid methane, according to CALT.