China used a giant net to land a reusable rocket. Does the idea have legs?

China’s successful recovery of a reusable rocket has sparked debate among aerospace experts over whether its unconventional approach could actually cut the cost of reaching space.On Friday, the country’s Long March-10B became the first orbital-class rocket outside the United States to return to Earth and be recovered intact. The rocket’s first-stage booster deployed four hooks as it descended and was then caught by a giant net on a ship waiting in the China-sea" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="8346" data-entity-type="location">South China Sea.SpaceX and Blue Origin do not use nets – they use what is known as landing legs to recover their reusable boosters.