Sea-Net Rocket Recovery

Sea-net rocket recovery is the route described in 如何「兜住」一颗火箭？｜ S10E21, where a returning first stage is caught by hooks and a large flexible tension-net frame on a sea platform instead of landing on legs or being caught by a tower.

In the Long March 10B / 长征十号乙 case, the rocket approaches the 领航者号 Recovery Ship from above, enters the net frame’s opening, engages the net through hook mechanisms, and is then damped as the net sinks and stretches. The design lowers some rocket-borne hardware and rigid-impact requirements, but it makes the recovery platform, cables, damping, sea-state control, and ship-rocket communication part of the critical path.

Key Claims

• Sea-net recovery shifts complexity from the rocket to the recovery platform.
• Flexible damping can absorb residual kinetic and potential energy more gently than a rigid landing surface.
• The route can tolerate more final-position error than leg landing, but only if Marine Recovery Platform Control and net mechanics are reliable.
• A successful catch still needs Reusable Rocket Turnaround before it proves economic reuse.

Connections

• Long March 10B / 长征十号乙 and 领航者号 Recovery Ship — source vehicle and platform.
• Rocket Recovery Route Choice — comparison with landing-leg and tower-catch approaches.
• Rocket Propellant Settling and Electro-Hydrostatic Rocket Servo — upstream return-control problems before capture.
• Reusable Rocket Economics — economic objective that sea-net recovery must ultimately serve.