Slashdot Mirror
China Plans to Also Launch Reusable Spaceplanes by 2020 (arstechnica.com)
Slashdot reader hackingbear writes: According to a statement from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China's reusable spaceplane will launch in 2020. The spaceplane will be launched vertically by a winged rocket to orbit and each of them will be returned to the ground horizontally, according to Chinese media reports. The system is designed to be reusable in 24 hours and for at least 20 times, cutting launch costs to 1/10 of the current price... "Currently China is developing its own reusable earth-to-orbit space vehicles that can take off and land horizontally," Liu Shiquan, vice director of the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation, said. "We have already finished several crucial ground tests for engines and [other key components], yielding remarkable achievements."
entropy, man.
I predict that their also launching capabilities will be unsurpassed.
I know.. isn't it weird how a hollow announcement of someone's "plans" beats out actual achievements?
Aren't they going to the moon too?
With the Chinese, it's not precisely the same thing as when a tinpot dictator spouts off with some improbable future outcome, but it sure is reminiscent.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Despite the photo in the article having some kind of astronaut-looking person in it, I hope they're not wasting $/effort on trying to put people in space.
For any satellite or cargo mission in the foreseeable future, there is absolutely no need to have a person in space, and doing so just increases the costs / risks and decreases the useful load of what has to go up there.
Aside from going to Mars / putting a person on Mars, there really isn't any need for humans to be in space at this point. As a certain scientist said, the main scientific output from the ISS has been high-school-science-fair-level projects.
Aside from the glory factor, there's no need for people. And while maybe for some countries that's still necessary, for a country like China -- guys, we already believe you.
It should be interesting when BO has NG flying. I'm guessing that bezo will have either Bigelow or Axiom launch a leo station, followed by one to eml1, and then one on the moon. With that, BO, SX, and maybe some others will be launching weekly, if not every couple of days.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You wouldn't even have learned words like corona or chromoSPHERE, or even eclipse, if what you're trying to convince us were true. You're just a troll. And not a very good one at that.
Nothing fundamentally wrong with a fully re-usable space plane but the 2020 launch date would imply that they are very far along. If so, I'm surprised no design information has leaked out. They should already be testing full scale gliding models etc.
I hope its real and they have just been keeping it hush hush: the more human capability there is to do space, the happier I am. I'll believe it though when I see some pictures of actual hardware .
It's going on near a decade that they haven't flown a manned mission. In the mean time, the Russians have kept flying and we have one reusable capsule that has flown a dozen times and is about to get its manned rating from NASA and two more in development to the tune of billions of dollars already spent and metal having been cut. Chinese? Not so much.
It is copy-paste nonsense.
I read the internet for the articles.
Why would you want to launch horizontally, regarding (presumably) a second vehicle under development? It just doesn't seem like you make any meaningful improvements, unless you are small and being dropped from a plane at 50,000 feet
From the list of astronauts you can see that there have been six missions to space. The last one, Shenzhou 11, launched on 16 October 2016 and rendezvoused with the space laboratory. They stayed in orbit for a month.
The Chinese are taking their time and making sure that they get everything right. They are definitely not rushing things with their program. I wouldn't put down the Chinese space program as they at least have the capability to put people into orbit unlike the US.
Go kill yourself by driving off the edge of the Earth already.
With a few careful observations, you can begin to understand that the
heliocentric model is a lie, and you live on a flat plane.
I bet your bridge is just a drawing on a flat plane.
As far as reaching orbit, it doesn't much matter. The altitude is easy. It's getting orbital speed that's the hard part. If they figure they can get velocity faster by using lift to counteract gravity, thereby saving engine thrust to use for velocity, that could make sense. On the other hand, getting into lower air pressure in the first 60 seconds will help acceleration.
Well, if nothing else, the speed with which China meets its objectives will serve to highlight the strength of its outstanding corporate espionage sector.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
It takes time to translate all the stolen documentation into Chinese then re-source the materials. Google translate isn't quite good enough for this task yet.
Falcon 9 has been used for more than half of all US launches in 2017. Spacex isn't going away anytime soon.
---- Sig. gone.
Actually, SpaceX hasn't been interested at all in spaceplanes either for a very long time or ever, so they can't be an "also-ran" if that means what I think since they never entered the race.
Ezekiel 23:20
For a second I thought that "NG" meant "natural gas". Then I realized it mostly does. :)
Ezekiel 23:20
The wings are already there for landing. By also using wings for takeoff, the craft can use it's much more efficient jet engines to reach hypersonic speeds, saving the rocket engine for when it's too high to get any oxygen from the air. That reduces the weight of fuel required, as well as potentially piping, pumps, etc.
the craft can use it's much more efficient jet engines to reach hypersonic speeds, saving the rocket engine for when it's too high to get any oxygen from the air. That reduces the weight of fuel required, as well as potentially piping, pumps, etc.
Less fuel, but you need two kinds of engines, which only adds more piping, pumps, etc, plus the dead mass of the extra engines. At least the extra fuel you carry will be burned, reducing mass as you go.
How deranged does someone have to be to trust that the former director of the American Gestapo (read: FBI) is somehow an impartial and just source of American equity? Do you wish cross-dressing serial crook J Edgar Hoover was here, too?
Bitch, please. If Obama had even 1 link to Russia, you nutbags would want him lynched
Pain is merely failure leaving the body