China completes first commercial suborbital capsule recovery

China's commercial space company has successfully completed the first flight and recovery of its suborbital capsule, Lihong-1, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Monday afternoon. It's the country's first parachute-assisted recovery of a commercial payload capsule from over 100 kilometers.

Developed by CAS Space, Lihong-1 had reached a maximum altitude of about 120 kilometers and skimmed the edge of space. The suborbital trajectory allowed the vehicle to briefly cross the Kármán line, providing minutes of microgravity before re-entering the atmosphere, though it did not achieve Earth orbit like a normal satellite.

The mission carried a scaled-down version of a crewed spacecraft, allowing experimental payloads to be exposed to microgravity and radiation before being safely returned for analysis. On board were a microgravity-based laser additive manufacturing experiment to test how metals behave during 3D-printing in space, as well as rose seeds subjected to space radiation for mutagenesis research.

Scientists will now study the returned samples to assess how space conditions altered their physical and biological properties.

Lihong-1 is designed as a general-purpose suborbital research platform offering over 300 seconds of high-quality microgravity, low launch cost and flexible payload integration.

Microgravity offers unique conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth, enabling materials to crystallize more uniformly, biological cells to grow in different ways and additive manufacturing to avoid gravitational defects.

The company plans to upgrade the reentry capsule into an orbital-class spacecraft capable of staying in space for over one year, with a reuse cycle of at least 10 flights.

As China continues to expand its reusable-rocket programs and builds infrastructure for commercial spaceflight, platforms like Lihong-1 are expected to play an essential role in developing in-space manufacturing, scientific research and eventually passenger experiences.