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China Space The Military

China Launches Experimental Spaceplane (nasaspaceflight.com) 31

Posted by BeauHD from the shrouded-in-secrecy dept.
schwit1 shares a report from NASASpaceFlight: China launched a new experimental reusable space vehicle on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center using a Long March-2F/T -- Chang Zheng-2F/T -- launch vehicle. Launch from the LC43/91 launch complex, under a veil of secrecy with no official launch photos or even a launch time disclosed. Chinese media emitted a laconic report referring, that "the test spacecraft will be in orbit for a period of time before returning to the domestic scheduled landing site. During this period, it will carry out reusable technology verification as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space."
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China Launches Experimental Spaceplane More

China Launches Experimental Spaceplane

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  • Lame (Score:3)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @02:19AM (#60475794)

    Call me when they copy Raptor or SpaceX fuel tank material/design.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I think the SpaceX copy is due for release in Long October.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by greulich ( 87871 )

      I know that it is in vogue to denigrate the capabilities of the Chinese, however we need to be aware that they are moving in a direction that will eventually challenge our capabilities.

      People go to their local Walmart or Harbor Freight, buy the cheapest item they can, and are surprised that it is poorly manufactured and falls apart or breaks after a short time. They are made that way because that is what you wanted to pay for. However you feel about Apple devices, it is hard to deny that they are manufact

    • Would there be any reason that SpaceX wouldn't sell rockets to anybody who can afford them? Tesla makes cars in China. Unless there are export laws precluding it why can't SpaceX make rockets there as well?

      I know its in style to play "Let's you and him fight" with America and China, but that could go away someday.

      • Unless there are export laws precluding it why can't SpaceX make rockets there as well?

        There are. ITAR specifically means that not only can SpaceX not export their technology, they can't even hire foreign workers for the most part.

      • I'm not sure, but I think the only way to do that legally is to establish a fully independent China subsidiary with non-US employees and Elon unable to tell them anything except maybe vague non-technical and public knowledge directions like "make a re-usable rocket" or something like that.

  • "Peaceful"? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @02:33AM (#60475806)

    Whenever a regime feels the need to claim that the use for something is "peaceful", then you know that something is fishy ...

    It is often a veiled threat, meaning that "It is peaceful now, buy just you wait ..."

    • Atoms for Peace [wikipedia.org]

      "Atoms for Peace" was the title of a speech delivered by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1953.

      I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new – one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare.

      The United States then launched an "Atoms for Peace" program that supplied equipment and informat

    • It's a dig at the US since our spaceplane was launched on a secret military mission. But I assume theirs was as well, and they're just getting out in front of speculation and poisoning the well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Octorian ( 14086 )

      I'm pretty sure we used similar weasel-words in the US to cover our first spy satellite program.

  • I wonder (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday September 05, 2020 @02:43AM (#60475824)

    So is this original tech, or did they manage to steal the X-37 designs?

    • Maybe the Chinese government has figured out what the X-37 is doing and that's why their space plane looks so similar.

      I've seen nothing about why the X-37 exists in the first place.

      Or maybe it looks the same because they're pretending to know what it's for and they want to fool the US into thinking they have figured it out.

      And maybe the US made it as a ruse in the first place to trick everyone else into thinking it was a very important secret project while it actually does nothing.

      Perhaps two spaceships

      • ...there are only so many ways to de-orbit a satellite...

      • I'm pretty sure the Chinese one looks so similar to the X-37 because the person who rendered the images just took a model of the X-37 and modified it a bit.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        why the X-37 exists in the first place

        Technology R&D. Most of the missions the X-37 flys could probably be accomplished by conventional (and cheaper) recoverable capsules or disposable satellites. But while you have to launch these anyway, why not try out some orbital maneuverability and glide reentry technology?

      • There have been no actual images of the Chinese space plane so we don't know what it looks like. We can assume it looks "similar" to the X-37 because of design requirements: a cylindrical space for payload, with propulsion and wings and nose cone so it can maneuver in space and glide to Earth. There are photos of a test article from 2007 that has the same basic body plan but doesn't really look much like the X-37 in details. And it's much smaller.

    • I guarantee they just stole the designs from Boeing. But hey... we got... cheap scientists who left the country after stealing the plans after 2 years of citizenship in return...? So its a win?
    • Don't worry, America is not too far behind the Chinese. You could probably catch up with them in ten years or so.
      • Trolling, I know. If not, what is the basis for your statement?
        • Yes, I am joking. However, I also work with Chinese companies and use Chinese devices in airborne applications. Some of their products are pretty good. Don't underestimate them.

    • Didn't that Chinese dude, Qian Xuesen, based on the Nazi's Silbervogel concept, propose a precursor to Dyna-Soar .. which was the predecessor of the X-37?

      Basically this is the lineage: Silbervogel --> Qian Xuesen proposal --> Dyna-soar --> Space Shuttle --> X-37 --> Chinese space plane

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