Last weekend (April 24th), China celebrated its sixth National Space Day (also known as the Aerospace Industry Achievement Exhibition) in Nanjing, an event highlighting the advances China has made in space. Similar to Space Day, held on the first Thursday in May each year (May 7th this year), the aim is to encourage interest in space exploration and the STEMS to inspire the next generation of astronauts and astronauts in Air – and space engineers.
This year, the celebrations focused on the Chang’e-5 mission (which showed some of the returned moon samples) and the name of China’s first Mars rover (Zhurong), which will land on the Red Planet later this month. Another interesting clip was a video from one of China’s major rocket manufacturers showing that they were working on a rocket that resembled the spaceship.
The video, titled “One Hour Global Arrival in the Space Transportation System,” was presented by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) – one of the country’s major state-run rocket manufacturers. Much like what Musk and SpaceX proposed for the spaceship, the video explores the potential of missile systems that could provide point-to-point suborbital transportation services.
The animation was recorded and uploaded to the Chinese social network Weibo (video above), accompanied by the following description (translated directly from Mandarin):
“The commercial animation of” One-Hour Global Arrival in Space Transportation System “of the First Academy of Aerospace Engineering, compare? This afternoon was recorded by [2021 Chinese Astronomy Day] China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology booth at Aerospace Industry Achievement Exhibition. If you’d like to make an appointment to visit lunar land, please go to the bottom of this blog. “
In the video we see two different concepts for suborbital passenger flights that could be in operation by 2040. Eric Berger from Ars Technica drew attention to the video, which it mirrored on Youtube in order to reach a wider audience. The animation begins with the representation of a spaceport with several launch ramps nearby. On each we see two-stage vertical launch and landing missiles (VTOL) that look strikingly similar to the spaceship and the super heavy
Similar to the spaceship is also the way the first stage booster returns to Earth after separation, indicating that it is a fully reusable system. We then see passengers enjoying the view of the earth and experiencing temporary weightlessness before the spaceship begins a motorized descent. The flight ends with the spacecraft landing in a large city that is clearly several time zones away (since it is night where they land).
In addition to its appearance and configuration, the animation is also similar to the “Earth to Earth” concept video that SpaceX released in September 2017 (see below). In this animation, a spaceship takes passengers off a platform at sea off the coast of New York and lands on a similar platform off the coast of Shanghai in just 34 minutes.
The second point-to-point concept in the Chinese animation shows a horizontal take-off and landing vehicle (HTOL) that is launched via an electromagnetic rail. As soon as this “space plane” is catapulted into the air, it activates what appears to be a hybrid rocket engine to accelerate from Mach 2 to Mach 15 (supersonic to hypersonic) and achieve suborbital flight.
Both concepts incorporate technologies and ideas that are currently widely used in both space agencies and commercial real estate. Several reusable rocket and spacecraft concepts are currently being developed between NASA, ESA, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada, Reaction Engines, and other federal and private programs.
Additionally, both are in line with China’s long-term goal of becoming the world’s leading space power by 2045. According to the roadmap released in 2017 by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China hopes to develop a “suborbital launch vehicle” by 2025 that will eventually become a fleet that can carry cargo anywhere in the world by 2035 and passengers by 2045.
China’s HTOL spacecraft concept unveiled at. Photo credit: CALT / Eric Berger
However, the clear similarity between the CALT missile concept and the spaceship also corresponds to the way China has monitored SpaceX’s progress practically from the start. As Eric Berger noted in his recently published book Liftoff, which describes SpaceX’s early battles, a Chinese spy boat was stationed off the coast of Omelek Island (part of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific) in 2006 to observe the maiden flight of the Falcon 1 .
More recent examples are the installation of “grid fins” in the Long March 2C rocket (similar to the Falcon 9) for future reusability and the development of the Long March 8 for landing on sea platforms. China’s long-term plan for the long March 9th – which will be the strongest heavy-duty system in the country once it goes into operation (slated for the 2030s) – is to make it partially reusable.
Meanwhile, it is not clear whether China plans to develop a spacecraft-like rocket to equip it for missions to the moon and Mars (in addition to point-to-point suborbital flights). But since regular missions to the moon and Mars were also part of the roadmap, it is entirely possible that China intends to adopt the design and mission profile of the spaceship in its entirety.
One thing is certain: China wants to be the superpower in space by the middle of the 21st century and not just one of several. While they still have some catching up to do before that can happen, their rate of growth is unprecedented.
Further reading: Ars Technica, Weibo
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