The 501th launch of the CZ rocket was launched on Dec 14 by CZ-2F from Jiuquan.China launches mystery reusable spaceplane for third time
Andrew Jones December 14, 2023
HELSINKI — China launched its experimental reusable spacecraft for the third time Thursday while maintaining strict secrecy around the mission.
A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert Dec. 14, sending a “reusable test spacecraft” into low Earth orbit, Chinese language state media Xinhua reported.
Airspace closure notices suggest a launch time of around 10:00 a.m. Eastern (1500 UTC), but the report, published within an hour of expected launch, did not provide a time. The terse report stated that the test spacecraft will “operate in orbit for a period of time” before returning to its intended landing site in China.
“During this period, reusable technology verification and space science experiments will be carried out as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space,” the report read, according to a machine translation.
The gap between the spacecraft’s first and second missions—launching in 2020 and 2022 respectively—was one year and 11 months. The third launch comes just over seven months after the spacecraft returned to Earth after its 276-day-long second mission.
The shortened time between missions suggests the spacecraft’s developer, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), has made progress in aspects relating to reusability of the spacecraft.
U.S. Space Force space domain awareness later cataloged the spacecraft in a 333 by 348-kilometer-altitude orbit inclined by 50 degrees. Space launch activity observer Jonathan McDowell estimated launch occurred at around 1412 UTC, based on the orbital data.
China has revealed no details of its experimental reusable spacecraft project. No images of any of the launches have been published. The suspected spaceplane is launched vertically on a Long March 2F, a rocket used to launch China’s Shenzhou crewed missions.
The launcher has a payload capacity of just over eight metric tons to low Earth orbit. This suggests that the spacecraft could be somewhat similar in size and function to U.S. Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane.
This notion is reinforced by apparent images of the payload fairing wreckage recovered from the second launch and posted on the Sina Weibo social media site. The images give possible clues as to the dimensions and shape of the spacecraft.
The previous missions included deploying satellites into orbit and may have involved scientific and other experiments. The spacecraft also performed numerous small and much larger orbital maneuvers during its second flight. The third flight will likely have a different scope and seek to further test the spacecraft’s capabilities.
The reusable spacecraft may be the orbital segment which will operate in combination with a reusable suborbital first stage. A reusable suborbital spacecraft was tested for the first time in 2021. A second mission launched in August 2022. The suborbital craft uses a vertical takeoff and a horizontal landing.
CASC has previously stated plans to develop a fully reusable, two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) space transportation system. CASC’s spaceplane project last year acquired national level funding from the Natural Science Foundation of China.
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