China is celebrating the successful launch and return of a reusable spacecraft which reportedly orbited Earth for two days before safely returning to the ground.
The launch and landing “marked an important breakthrough in my country’s technology research on reusable spacecraft”, said the government-run Xinhua news agency.
There are very few details available about the spacecraft itself, but reports from independent media in China suggest it is a space-plane similar to the US X-37B orbital test vehicle.
The X-37B is a reusable and robotic space plane which has been tested by the US Air Force by being launched on a rocket and is then capable of gliding back to Earth once it exits orbits. It has flown four classified missions carrying secretive payloads during long-duration orbits for the US military.
Hypersonic spacecraft like X-37B have the potential to be used as weapons that could take out enemy satellites, space stations, ground targets or missiles and would be very hard to detect or intercept.
Xinhua news agency described this weekend’s mission as advancing China’s “peaceful use of space”.
Beijing is typically secretive about its launches, but the spacecraft tested this weekend is especially mysterious as there are no official photographs or computer images of the spacecraft, and it was not even named by Xinhua.
China’s experimental reusable spacecraft landed safely on Sunday after orbiting the Earth for two days, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
“The success indicated that China has achieved key breakthroughs in researching the spacecraft’s reusable technologies. It will provide more convenient and cheaper transport for the peaceful use of space in the future,” Xinhua said.
An official memo regarding the launch which circulated on social media warned people at the launch site not to film the take-off or discuss it online.
The document also said “all units should strengthen personnel security education and personnel management during missions to ensure that there is no leakage of secrets.”
No details of the spacecraft were revealed in the report, but a military source confirmed the authenticity of the document saying that “maybe you can take a look at the US X-37B”.
“There were many firsts in this launch…The spacecraft is new, the launch method is also different. That’s why we needed to make sure there is extra security.” the military source said of the launch of the reusable spacecraft, which was shrouded in secrecy.
China has an ambitious space programme which saw to the successful landing of a rover on the far side of the moon last year. The country has since then also launched its first Mars mission.
The spacecraft called Tianwen-1, which means “quest for heavenly truth”, took off successfully from Hainan Island off the south coast of China in July.
It will take seven months to reach the red planet and plans to search for underground water and evidence of possible ancient life forms.
Tianwen-1 which has both an orbiter and a rover is expected to enter Mars’ orbit in February and is aiming for a landing site on Utopia Planitia.
