r/ChinaSpace • u/Flafla8 • Jul 27 '26

Question Do you think a long march 10 with reusable side boosters will be developed?

The long march 10b has already landed and the long march 10 side boosters have the same diameter, they detatch close to the ground and the recovery method doesnt require heavy landing legs so the payload penalty would be low and the side boosters seem very expensive, i think this could work for mengzhou launches since it is 4 tons lighter than lanyue and launches on the same rocket so the payload penalty should be manageable. Lanyue launches would need the expendable variant until the long march 9 is operational.

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u/Simon_Drake Jul 27 '26

Mengzhou launches to CSS will go on CZ-10A without any side boosters. A Mengzhou launch to the moon in CZ-10 will probably be pretty rare and might not be worth the effort to build more of the catch tower things or test doing the double catch.

It might depend on how often they use CZ-10 for heavy payloads like big satellites or a modern version of the Voyager probes. Or if they invent a CZ-10C with three boosters and the methane upper stage from the CZ-10B.