The Chinese reusable experimental spacecraft ( zh, c=可重复使用试验航天器, p=Kě chóngfù shǐyòng shìyàn hángtiān qì, l=Reusable Experimental Spacecraft; CSSHQ) is the first Chinese

reusable spacecraft A reusable spacecraft is a class of spacecraft that have been designed with repeated launch, orbit, deorbit and atmospheric reentry in mind. This contrasts with conventional spacecraft which are designed to be expended (thrown away, allowed to bur ...

. It was first launched on 4 September 2020 at 07:30 UTC on a Long March 2F from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...

of northwestern China. Xinhua News Agency said in a report, "After a period of in-orbit operation, the spacecraft will return to the scheduled landing site in China. It will test reusable technologies during its flight, providing technological support for the peaceful use of space". Unofficial reports indicate that the spacecraft is part of the

Shenlong Shenlong, (, literally "god dragon" or "divine dragon", Japanese: 神竜 Shinryū) is a spiritual dragon from Chinese mythology who is the master of storms and also a bringer of rain. He is of equal significance to other creatures such as Tianlon ...

spaceplane, which is claimed to be similar to the Boeing X-37B.

History

On 6 September 2020, two days after the launch, the CSSHQ successfully returned to an airbase.

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and

Jonathan McDowell Jonathan Christopher McDowell (born 1960) is an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is a staff member at the Chandra X-ray Center. McDowell is the author and editor of Jonathan's Space Report, ...

said the landing site was an airbase at

Lop Nur Lop Nur or Lop Nor (from a Mongolian name meaning "Lop Lake", where "Lop" is a toponym of unknown origin) is a former salt lake, now largely dried up, located in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin, between the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts ...

. On 7 September 2020, commercial satellite reconnaissance company

Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is an American public Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends. The co ...

published a satellite photo of a runway at

, taken shortly after the landing of the spaceplane. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, speculated that one of the dots visible on the runway is the Chinese spaceplane. On 8 September 2020, ''

Spaceflight Now Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in o ...

'' reported American officials had detected the launch at 7:30 GMT, that the craft's orbit's axes were and , and its orbit was titled 50.2 degrees to the equator.

2nd mission

On 4 August 2022 at around 16:00 UTC, the CSSHQ was launched for a second time, also on top of a Long March 2F. It raised its orbit on August 25 to a near-circular 597 by 608-kilometer orbit.

Specifications

Chen Hongbo Chen may refer to: People *Chen (surname) (陳 / 陈), a common Chinese surname * Chen (singer) (born 1992), member of the South Korean-Chinese boy band EXO * Chen Chen (born 1989), Chinese-American poet * (), a Hebrew first name or surname: * ...

, of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for China's space agency, said during a 2017 interview that China's space plane would be able to be re-used up to 20 times. Chen said the vehicle's first stage would use a scramjet engine. On 24 March 2020, officials said the vehicle was designed to carry a crew of six. Its takeoff weight would be 21.6 tonnes, and it would be long.

Speculation over the spaceplane's role

When asked to speculate on the spaceplane's role

Brian Weeden Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word meani ...

, director of program planning for the

Secure World Foundation Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) are defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecr ...

said, "It's a great question. We're not even really sure why the U.S. military is pursuing a space plane." Jonathan McDowell speculated that the very high speeds the spaceplane underwent during re-entry might help the Chinese in their development of hypersonic missiles. He added the Chinese may have thought, "If the Americans have one of those, there's got to be a good reason for it, so we better get one too."

References

{{Portal bar, China, Spaceflight Reusable spaceflight technology Space program of the People's Republic of China Spacecraft launched in 2020 Individual space vehicles Secret space vehicles