Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 19, 2026

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

On Feb. 11, 2026 China began its push to the Moon, testing an early version of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) Long March-10 space launch vehicle (SLV) that is expected to take Chinese astronauts to the Moon in 2029 or 2030.

This was a relatively safe “sub-orbital” test, meaning it did not reach orbit, of the Long March-10A, a single-stack version of the 5-meter diameter Long March-10 that will become the new workhorse for the Chinese space program, taking astronauts and cargo to the Chinese Space Station, succeeding the Long March-2F.

The Feb. 11 mission had two goals: the first was to conduct an in-flight test of the crew escape system, which successfully detached the new “Mengzhou” crewed space capsule from the booster; a ground-launched test of the crew escape system was conducted on June 17, 2025.

A second goal was to conduct a near test of its unique at-sea barge-based first stage recovery system, which apparently was a planned partial success inasmuch as the first stage landed close by the recovery system.

While many Chinese-source illustrations indicate that the first stage of the Long March-10 may eventually be equipped with recovery landing-legs that will enable recovery to locations on the ground, most likely near launch sites, the Long March-10A test revealed a unique first stage recovery system.

This recovery system uses an at-sea powered barge equipped with a large scaffold system, that uses movable cables to catch the descending first stage without landing directly on the barge.

This “cable-catch” was revealed at the 2024 Zhuhai Airshow by CASC as a means to recover the first stage of the much larger Long March-9 SLV, that may not be tested until 2032.

One advantage of the cable-catch system is that it allows for a reduction in the weight of the first stage by dispensing with landing legs, which in turn allows more fuel to be used to loft a higher payload.

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  China starts push to Moon with first test of Long March-10