SpaceX uses ‘chopsticks.’ China uses ‘nets.’ Here’s how these space superpowers design their rocket recovery systems

China is quickly closing the gap on Elon Musk’s reusable rockets in a way that should worry him more than any single competitor has before. On July 10, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC)—the state-owned contractor that builds nearly all of China’s rockets and satellites—launched the Long March-10B rocket on its first flight. It successfully placed its payload into orbit, and then did something that only SpaceX has managed to do: get back to Earth and dance softly, catching it…