China is preparing to land its astronauts on the Earth's satellite.
China plans to send two new giant reusable rockets into space in 2025 and 2026 in preparation for future manned missions to the Moon. China is going to land its astronauts on the surface of the Moon by the end of this decade, writes Space.
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The main contractor of the Chinese space program, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), is planning to send two new huge reusable launch vehicles into space as part of the lunar program. Future rocket launches, scheduled to take place in 2025 and 2026, are key to China's first-ever lunar landing by 2030.
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While past space rockets used by China were disposable, the new launch vehicles are designed to be reusable. This means that they will not only be more technologically advanced, but also more profitable financially. For each new mission, you won't have to create a new rocket from scratch.
CASC does not say what the new missiles are called, but it is known that one of them will have a diameter of 4 meters, and the other will have a diameter of 5 meters. American experts suggest that perhaps these will be versions of the future Chinese Long March 10 launch vehicle with a length of 92 meters. It will be capable of delivering approximately 27 tons of payload into orbit around the Moon. The Mengzhou spacecraft with Chinese astronauts on board will be delivered to the Moon using the Long March 10 launch vehicle. About this ship Focus already wrote.
It is believed that the test launch of the Long March 10 rocket could launch the next generation of manned spacecraft into low-Earth orbit as early as 2025. But there is no information about the launch in 2026, and therefore experts do not even make assumptions.
While several private Chinese companies are currently developing reusable rockets, the state-owned corporation's new reusable rockets could significantly expand China's space launch capabilities. In this way, the state will be able to compete with private contractors, American experts believe.
It is known that CASC, according to the corporation, “successfully completed testing and achieved a technological breakthrough in the field of reusable rockets” last year.
As I already wrote Focus, the new reusable Starship rocket created by SpaceX, is scheduled to take off on its third test flight on March 14. This 122-meter-tall space rocket is already considered the most powerful in the world, although it failed the first two tests. SpaceX plans to use the new rocket to deliver payloads into low-Earth orbit and, in the future, to carry cargo and astronauts to the Moon. The company's most ambitious goal is to use its latest rocket to deliver the first astronauts to Mars.