Two Chinese pseudo-companies pursuing suborbital tourist market
Link here. One company is apparently copying Blue Origin’s New Shepard, though its capsule’s exterior looks more like a copy of SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The other company however is doing something very unusual for a Chinese space operation. It appears to be designing something original, not a copy of some American achievement.
Space Transportation’s goal is to develop a suborbital spaceplane capable of carrying tourists on suborbital flights. The winged system is very different from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, which is currently in flight test.
A larger Space Transportation vehicle would be a high-speed transport that would fly between distant locations on Earth in less than two hours.
…The company released very little information about the six launches it conducted this year. It’s not even clear where the flights took place, although Wikipedia indicates they might have been conducted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
If successful, Space Transportation will have have done something almost unprecedented for China, building something from an entirely original design.
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Link here. One company is apparently copying Blue Origin’s New Shepard, though its capsule’s exterior looks more like a copy of SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The other company however is doing something very unusual for a Chinese space operation. It appears to be designing something original, not a copy of some American achievement.
Space Transportation’s goal is to develop a suborbital spaceplane capable of carrying tourists on suborbital flights. The winged system is very different from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, which is currently in flight test.
A larger Space Transportation vehicle would be a high-speed transport that would fly between distant locations on Earth in less than two hours.
…The company released very little information about the six launches it conducted this year. It’s not even clear where the flights took place, although Wikipedia indicates they might have been conducted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
If successful, Space Transportation will have have done something almost unprecedented for China, building something from an entirely original design.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“ If successful, Space Transportation will have have done something almost unprecedented for China, building something from an entirely original design.”
As you’ve correctly and repeatedly reminded readers, there are no independent “commercial” aerospace firms in Red China. They all operate at the behest of the military. This hypersonic “transport” is nothing more than unclassified cover for research into boost glide body research for military application. The cartoon at the link shows intercontinental reach that could never happen without a very large boost stage that is not shown, unless of course they’re developing an advanced engine powered by unobtainium.
Having spent significant time in China, it took little time to realize that they take great pride in their abilities to expropriate.
“If you can’t keep it for yourself, we deserve all your stuff.”
I welcome their new ‘original’ space plane. It might be worth copying.
DLRs “Spaceliner” is similar