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Chinese Space Program
TheKutKu
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This is apparently what they want to do, a crewed, passenger hypersonic glide vehicle, with retropropulsive landing of both stage, not unlike New Frontiers Aerospace, although maybe (very) slightly more serious.
View: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1589561395359940608
"Lingkong Tianxing [Space Transportation] expects to complete the flight verification of the aircraft's "Jindouyun" series engine in November and realize the first flight of the supersonic passenger aircraft prototype in 2027."
"Jindouyun" seems to be a liquid-fuelled engine, no?
But on a more practical side, they've launched a lot of Supersonic and hypersonic flying test beds (for CASC, NORINCO, CASIC, CAS, AVIC, Tsinghua and Xiamen Univ...) , 16 in 2022 and Probably 20+ in 2023 looking at that second announcement.
View: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1615573402504564738
View: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1710796841556816278
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Considering the mounting difficulties with NASA Artemis and MSR, I'm really wondering whether the chinese might want to hammer two blows the same year: 2030.
Imagine: nailing MSR and Human Lunar Return the same year. Would be one heck of soft power victory for them. It might be only a coincidence, but both missions dates seems to converge toward 2030.
Imagine: nailing MSR and Human Lunar Return the same year. Would be one heck of soft power victory for them. It might be only a coincidence, but both missions dates seems to converge toward 2030.
Why vertical landing in particular? Feels like horizontal landing would be a lot easier on the passenger. Especially for civilian passenger.
This company intrigue me, they have tested their hardware so many time yet information about them is a lot less than even other Chinese company.
TheKutKu
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Fundamentally it is "just" a sounding rocket company, rather large sounding rockets admitedly (at least Terrier-familly size, if not the size of the larger Black Brant), but still that, they seem to have a variety of customers, commercial, academic and military, it's not just all military hypersonic testbed.
They have a recoverable (parachute) version of Tianxing that seems roughly comparable to the Stratolaunch Talon-A high supersonic/low-hypersonic testbed, similar mass, size, and speed.
I mean fare enough for sounding purpose. Just curious that from their video they want to do vertical landing for their civilian transport space plane.
神十九乘组、港澳航天员、登月工程……内容满满！这场发布会有点儿燃
神舟十九号载人飞行任务新闻发布会于10月29日上午举行，中国载人航天工程办公室副主任、工程新闻发言人林西强介绍相关情况，并接受记者提问。
news.cctv.com
TheKutKu
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Main one: Here's the crew of Shenzhou 19
Cai Xuzhe, 2nd flight after Shenzhou 14, 48 yo
Song Lingdong, 1st flight, former PLAAF pilot, 34 yo
Wang Haoze, 1st flight, former CASC AALPT Propulsion engineer, 34 yo
Couple notes:
-Song Lingdong was a Su-35 pilot in the relatively well known 6th Aviation brigade of Guangdong, the only chinese brigade to fly su-35.
-Wang Haoze is known for her research on Nuclear Thermal Propulsion, she is the only woman in the 3rd astronaut group, and the 2nd chinese astronaut of civilian background (do note that they all had to join the army after the selection however)
Other important news:
-The 4th astronaut corps (2022) has begun training, they are being specifically trained for lunar missions, there are 10 astronauts in the corps, 8 pilots and 2 payload specialists who are from Hong Kong and Macau respectively.
-Following a call to tender from CMSA, both SAST and CAST have been selected for the preliminary development of a crewed lunar rover, pending further selection, this rover will also be named by the public, here are the concept pictures of SAST's and CAST's rovers:
-Following a question about the risks of a "Starliner" scenario, CMSA assures that they can quickly launch Shenzhou 20.
-About the manned lunar program, the latest tests are the Mengzhou capsule air drop tests and the Lanyue lunar lander separation tests. The flight plan and scientific payloads for China's first manned lunar landing are "almost finalized." The schedule is "tight." More information will be shared at the upcoming 6th Manned spaceflight conference on 20 november.
-Return of Shenzhou 18 is planned for November 4.
-In 2025, the Chinese manned space program plans to implement three missions: Shenzhou 20, Shenzhou 21 and Tianzhou 9.
And finally some news on the "Chinese COTS/CRS", following selection two proposals have been selected:
-轻舟 Qingzhou of the Innovation Academy for Microsatellite of the CAS, called "a spacecraft"
-昊龙 Haolong of Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (611 institute) of Chengdu Aerospace of AVIC, called "a space shuttle"
Concept picture of Haolong have been unveiled:
Needless to say Chengdu 611 has vast experience in aerospace, and especially hypersonic flight with their WZ-8 hypersonic rocket plane.
The requirement for the "chinese COTS" are
-A minimum of 1.8t and 7m^3 of cargo mass and pressurized volume to Tiangong (41-42° 340-420 km)
-Launch campaign in less than a month
-Cost of less than 120M Yuan/ton ($16.81/ton, cheaper than what NASA pays for dragon!)
Very ambitious ones
Cai Xuzhe, 2nd flight after Shenzhou 14, 48 yo
Song Lingdong, 1st flight, former PLAAF pilot, 34 yo
Wang Haoze, 1st flight, former CASC AALPT Propulsion engineer, 34 yo
Couple notes:
-Song Lingdong was a Su-35 pilot in the relatively well known 6th Aviation brigade of Guangdong, the only chinese brigade to fly su-35.
-Wang Haoze is known for her research on Nuclear Thermal Propulsion, she is the only woman in the 3rd astronaut group, and the 2nd chinese astronaut of civilian background (do note that they all had to join the army after the selection however)
Other important news:
-The 4th astronaut corps (2022) has begun training, they are being specifically trained for lunar missions, there are 10 astronauts in the corps, 8 pilots and 2 payload specialists who are from Hong Kong and Macau respectively.
-Following a call to tender from CMSA, both SAST and CAST have been selected for the preliminary development of a crewed lunar rover, pending further selection, this rover will also be named by the public, here are the concept pictures of SAST's and CAST's rovers:
-Following a question about the risks of a "Starliner" scenario, CMSA assures that they can quickly launch Shenzhou 20.
-About the manned lunar program, the latest tests are the Mengzhou capsule air drop tests and the Lanyue lunar lander separation tests. The flight plan and scientific payloads for China's first manned lunar landing are "almost finalized." The schedule is "tight." More information will be shared at the upcoming 6th Manned spaceflight conference on 20 november.
-Return of Shenzhou 18 is planned for November 4.
-In 2025, the Chinese manned space program plans to implement three missions: Shenzhou 20, Shenzhou 21 and Tianzhou 9.
And finally some news on the "Chinese COTS/CRS", following selection two proposals have been selected:
-轻舟 Qingzhou of the Innovation Academy for Microsatellite of the CAS, called "a spacecraft"
-昊龙 Haolong of Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (611 institute) of Chengdu Aerospace of AVIC, called "a space shuttle"
Concept picture of Haolong have been unveiled:
Needless to say Chengdu 611 has vast experience in aerospace, and especially hypersonic flight with their WZ-8 hypersonic rocket plane.
The requirement for the "chinese COTS" are
-A minimum of 1.8t and 7m^3 of cargo mass and pressurized volume to Tiangong (41-42° 340-420 km)
-Launch campaign in less than a month
-Cost of less than 120M Yuan/ton ($16.81/ton, cheaper than what NASA pays for dragon!)
Very ambitious ones
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TheKutKu
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Yes, baselined on CAS Space's Lijian 2, demo launch planned in mid 2025
This is an actual "all-inclusive" COTS proposal with cargo spacecraft and launcher, not unlike what Orbital Science and SpaceX proposed in the 2000s.AVIC Chengdu is also maker of Chinese fighter Aircraft (like J-20). Interesting to see them in space sector.
Wild idea but I wonder if this may mean CAC might be the one to build China military space plane in the future.
TheKutKu
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A rough size estimation of Haolong gives a fuselage roughly comparable to X-37B, maybe a bit shorter (length/height) and a bit fatter (width), it is likely smaller than Dream Chaser, I expect that the payload volume and mass won't be much above the required minimum of 1.8t/7m^3.
Docking directly from back (where you'd expect thrusters) and a lack of service module is intriguing, I wonder how they make all of this fit.
Docking directly from back (where you'd expect thrusters) and a lack of service module is intriguing, I wonder how they make all of this fit.
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FighterJock
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I wonder too TheKutKu, no doubt they might change the design slightly in the future especially to incoperate the features.
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