China's first reusable spacecraft lands after 2-days in orbit

[sl8]

From https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-s-first-reusable-spacecraft-lands-after-2-days-orbit-n1239436

China's first reusable spacecraft lands after 2-days in orbit

The flight “marks an important breakthrough in our country’s research on reusable spacecraft,” state media said.

Sept. 6, 2020, 8:49 AM EDT / Source: Associated Press
By The Associated Press

BEIJING — China’s first reusable spacecraft landed Sunday after two days in orbit, a possible step toward lower-cost space flight, the government announced.

The secretive, military-run space program has released few details of the craft, which was launched Friday aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s desert northwest.

The craft landed as planned at Jiuquan, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

State media have yet to publish any photos. The craft's size and shape are unclear.

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[mitch96]

1. It will be interesting to see if it's a Space X clone... If so you KNOW they stole the plans...nnt

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. More likely a winged craft capable of re-entry, like the Shuttle or USAF/Boeing X-37

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

The SpaceX innovations in reusability are the booster rockets that don't get into true orbit.

[judeling]

3. So far

But of course the next one from SpaceX is designed for full up and down.

The key is not in the spacecraft, but in the fuel. Why water on the moon was such a huge deal. Carrying the fuel for the landing from start to finish is just economically unfeasible right now.