Reuters: Chinese spacecraft returns to Earth after inaugural flight

[ecarfan]

Reuters: Chinese spacecraft returns to Earth after inaugural flight

The spacecraft lifted off from a launch centre in northwest China on Friday and completed its flight according to "set procedures", said China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the country's main space contractor. It then landed back on Earth "horizontally", CASC said in a statement… The CASC did not say how high the spacecraft flew, or elaborate on its flight path. Visuals of the spacecraft or its flight were not provided.
In September last year, China sent an experimental spacecraft into orbital space on a rocket. The spacecraft returned to Earth after two days in orbit on its low-key mission.
Commentators on Chinese social media have speculated that Beijing has been developing a spacecraft like the U.S. Air Force's X-37B, an autonomous spaceplane that can remain in orbit for long periods of time before flying back to Earth on its own.

So apparently this “spacecraft” is not a reusable rocket.

 

[el-guapin]

Interesting find. THNX 4 sharing!

 

[ecarfan]

Commentators on Chinese social media have speculated that Beijing has been developing a spacecraft like the U.S. Air Force's X-37B, an autonomous spaceplane that can remain in orbit for long periods of time before flying back to Earth on its own.

Pure speculation: maybe China is quietly developing a new manned vehicle that takes off vertically using rocket boosters and then lands like a plane. That might have good reasons to transition away from their current capsule which is based on the Soyuz.

 

[ecarfan]

Found an article from 2020 about the first flight of the secretive Chinese vehicle.

Eric Berger’s new article about the latest flight of the vehicle contained a link to the older article.