The Long March-10 is China's most powerful carrier rocket to date and a key component of the country's future crewed lunar missions.

On Wednesday, China successfully conducted a low-altitude demonstration and verification flight test of the rocket at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province. The rocket's first stage then splashed down safely in a designated sea area, as planned.

Two days later, on February 13, the first stage was successfully salvaged and retrieved from the sea, marking China's first-ever maritime recovery mission of a rocket's core booster.