China launches and lands its first re-usable spacecraft
- Reference: 1599461105
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/07/china_reusable_spacecraft/
- Source link:
China scarcely acknowledged the launch and state media offered only scanty reports of the mission, saying the craft launched atop the Long March-2F rocket that China has now used successfully in 16 low-Earth-orbit missions. Whatever the craft was then returned to Earth on Sunday and a three-sentence [1]story in State organ Xinhua that ends with: “The successful flight marked the country's important breakthrough in reusable spacecraft research and is expected to offer convenient and low-cost round trip transport for the peaceful use of the space.”
Xinhua [2]teased this mission in 2017, when it said “Unlike traditional one-off spacecraft, the new spacecraft will fly into the sky like an aircraft” and named 2020 as the timeframe for whatever it is to fly.
China successfully launches its biggest-ever space truck to fire up its space station ambitions [3]READ MORE
Western analysts suspect the craft closely resembled the X-37B, the USA’s uncrewed spaceplane that can stay in orbit for months at a time and has been observed carrying out plane change manoeuvres that would require quite a lot of fuel and make it more stealthy than vehicles that reach and then remain in an orbit that hardly varies.
The X-37B looks a lot like NASA’s Space Shuttle and includes a cargo bay that has been imagined as supposed as a possible site for satellite-grabbing tools, perhaps not for entirely peaceful purposes.
China is currently building a space station, so certainly has a need for “convenient and low-cost round trip transport” to space. The nation also has as much strategic interest in space as any other.
If China uses whatever is launched and landed to ship crew to its space station, it will probably tell the world and not be shy of doing so. ®
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[1] http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-09/06/c_139346762.htm
[2] http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/31/c_136718107.htm
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/06/china_successfully_launches_long_march_5b/
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Read it again. "Won't be shy about it" refers speculatively about using this craft to send crew to China's planned space station. A good PR move, peace in space etc
The mission it has just completed (or possibly not, I'll grant you) might, as the article suggests, be for purposes akin to that of the USA's military space plane - the purpose of which has been secret.
You're right that it's plausible that China's space plane may not have performed as well as expected, but there are also other plausible reasons for keeping details secret - as the USA effort illustrates.
One must admit that China is not your average country, is not chatty about what it does and, contrary to the average teenager, does not feel the need to post everything it does to FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
So we are just now learning that China got its hands on the Space Shuttle design, has been working on recreating it, and has now successfully launched and recovered one of its prototypes.
Wow.
I wonder if they've solved the problems with the protective tiles ?
US submarine commander - "but that's top secret. How did you know about it?"
"I read the Russian translation of the service manual." James Bond - "Never say never again"
How many years ago, but still valid today?
Fly like a eagle...
" the new spacecraft will fly into the sky like an aircraft"
...strapped to a huge rocket...
FTFY
This article ends saying they won't be shy about it, yet here we are with a "three sentence story". Which suggests to me either this flight didn't go as well as reported or, more likely, it was the most basic of prototypes and they'd feel embarrassed publicising details.