Of all the space vehicles Chinese, it is undoubtedly the one that remains the most discreet. No photos, no characteristics, just a take-off date and a return which will be scrutinized by the agencies and a few Internet users. However, having a small automated shuttle has great advantages.
It is also a military project.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Chinese shuttle
This time the world knew a little better what to expect. For a few months, rumors had been swirling about a new test of the small Chinese space shuttle. The latter, which does not carry astronauts, had already taken off in September 2020, to land a few days later on a secretly arranged track on the salt lake of Lop Nur, a large Chinese military test site located in the North West. from the country.
For three days, space enthusiasts but also the military of the majority of the great powers had recorded, speculated, observed the sky in search of this mysterious little space plane. The various ministries of defense undoubtedly have data, but the public, none: its characteristics, its size, its motorization or even its general appearance have remained unknown.
And the feat continues in 2022, since on August 4, China put the cover back and sent its shuttle back into orbit. Is it even the same model? Impossible to know.
But shh, it’s a secret
This small shuttle, which has no official name or nickname (“experimental reusable vehicle”), takes off from Jiuquan from the same site and with the same launcher as the Shenzhou manned space missions. The firing of this CZ-2F therefore took place on August 4th. The Americans have published its orbital parameters, detecting it on a small ellipse between 346 and 593 km altitude, inclined at 50°.
And when will she come back to rest? The information was obviously not disclosed, although commercial satellite images once again showed activity on the track at Lop Nur.
The shuttle game…
It remains to be seen what a possible small shuttle can do in low orbit. On this subject, there are many fantasies about military uses: approaching satellites, dropping projectiles from the frontier of space, secret deployments… But few of these concepts are really practical.
The main advantage of a small shuttle of this type is to embark sensitive and expensive payloads to test them in orbit before returning them to its hold. The shuttle can maneuver quickly (useful for “disappearing” from radar for a few hours or a few days), but can also stay in space for a long time if necessary. Witness the American shuttle X-37b. A little more documented than its Chinese counterpart, one of these shuttles has been in orbit since May 17, 2020.
Source : SPACENEWS
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