(Newswire.net— September 5, 2020) — China has successfully launched a reusable experimental aircraft, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The spacecraft was launched using the “Long March-2F” launch vehicle from the Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, in northwest China.
After a period of time spent in orbit, the spacecraft will return and land at its intended location in China.
During the flight, the technology for the reuse of that spacecraft, intended “for the peaceful use of space”, will be tested, Xinhua underlines.
The Wall Street Journal states that the launch of the “experimental spaceplane” was secret, as the latest step in China’s space program.
Both China and the United States have secret programs for the development of reusable “unmanned spacecraft”, the paper writes.
Last year, the US Air Force’s “X-37B” orbital test aircraft was tested, reminiscent of a “miniature version of a retired space shuttle.”
That new spacecraft completed a 780-day mission in Earth orbit. The second American experimental program for the development of space planes, led by the “Boeing” company and the Agency for Advanced Research in Defense, was abandoned earlier this year.
The Wall Street Journal writes that China has been working on its “space plane” since at least 2007.
At that time, pictures of the aircraft called “Shenlong” under the wing of a Chinese bomber, were first published in the Chinese media.
The state television station in the northern Chinese province of Shanzi reported in 2011 that “Shenlong” performed a suborbital flight, although little was known about that strictly confidential program. The Xinhua news agency stated that the American paper has not revealed whether the aircraft, launched today, is a version of “Shenlong” or a completely new one.
Last year, the state-run Chinese Academy of Aeronautical Aerodynamics published images that showed tests in the air tunnel of a “space plane” capable of taking off horizontally from a larger aircraft and only later using its strong propulsion system to reach orbit.
In July, China launched its first mission to Mars, the last in a series of missions that underlined its growing challenge to the long-standing status of the United States as the world’s leading power in the space race.
China’s goal is to have an operational space station by 2022, and a human-based base on the Moon by 2045. Last year, the United States established a military space command to suppress perceived threats in space, mainly from China and Russia, reminds the “Wall Street Journal”.