After SpaceX inaugurated the trips to space with reusable material, it seems that China has also managed to do so. An experimental spacecraft launched by China on Friday reportedly successfully returned to a designated landing site on Sunday. The spacecraft has been in orbit for two days and, it seems, aims to serve to send humans into space on board reusable vehicles.
Although there are no images that represent the moment, the Chinese are satisfied with what has been achieved.
China successfully tests reusable ships
This was not just any mission and was therefore kept secret by the Chinese Army. Thus, media they did not obtain videos or photos of the launch and arrival of the vehicle. In addition, there is also no clarification about the technologies used on this ship.
On what has now been made known, after returning, the mysterious spacecraft was put into orbit on Friday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The transport was in charge of the rocket Long March 2F, a family of rockets with the mission to send Chinese manned and unmanned missions into space.
Now then — this could be something exceptional. The rumours are that inside this exceptional payload fairing atop a CZ-2F is a CASC spaceplane, launching from Jiuquan Friday. Source: 俊了个锅 via 林晓弈。 https://t.co/qs6VRfzQoP https://t.co/OESvzyDyEl pic.twitter.com/ZPnpwAIfyO
- Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) September 3, 2020
Are Chinese copying Americans with the X-37B?
After the information was transported outside the government sphere, Chinese media began to speculate. According to them, this will be China's response to the US secret mission when launching the X-37B spacecraft. This United States Air Force vehicle, is an autonomous space plane made by Boeing that can remain in orbit for long periods of time before flying back to Earth alone.
It was also reinforced that this would be the culmination of a mission that China had announced some time ago to be launched in 2020. The idea would be to produce ships that were reusable to increase the frequency of launches and reduce the costs of missions.
Although this little information has been released, it remains unclear whether the spacecraft will be fixed-wing like the United States space shuttle or whether it will be like the X-37B, a spacecraft one-fifth the size of the shuttle.
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