Chinese Next-Gen Spacecraft Lands After Orbital Flight
A Chinese next-generation crewed spacecraft landed on Friday after a nearly three-day automated flight in Earth orbit.
Pictures from Chinese media showed the capsule descending under three parachutes. The vehicle had made a high-speed reentry from a final orbit of 523 x 6,278 km (325 x 3,901 miles) to simulate a return from deep space.
The new spacecraft, which will carry up to six astronauts, is intended to replace the three-seat Shenzhou spaceship now in use. China will use the new vehicle for operations in Earth and lunar orbit.
A Long March 5B launched the spacecraft into Earth orbit on Tuesday from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. It was the maiden flight of Long March 5 variant, which will be used to launch elements of China’s first permanent space station next year.
Long March 5B has a core stage with four strap-on boosters. It lacks the upper stage of the Long March 5, which is used to send communications satellites to geosynchronous orbit and probes to the moon and planets.
5 responses to “Chinese Next-Gen Spacecraft Lands After Orbital Flight”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Sure, it looks suspiciously like a Dragon 2 capsule, but can they land it with FOUR parachutes? I think not.
And here we just thought NASA was being difficult.
Actually, it looks a lot more like a Dragon 1 so I guess three parachutes is okay.
Here is a picture of the Chinese capsule. Look at it and tell me which Dragon it most closely resembles.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
The Chinese capsule resembles the Dragon 1 most closely from its base up to the base of the dome on top – strictly conical. This resemblance is even stronger when the vehicle still has its heat shield attached.
Dragon 2 looks more like a cone after a big Thanksgiving day feed has made its belly slop over its belt – there’s a decided curve to the whole bottom-to-top mold line.
The dome on top of the Chinese capsule is, admittedly, more Dragon 2-ish looking, but it’s also of a larger relative diameter than the dome atop Dragon 2. Also, the dome atop the Chinese capsule looks more like the big end of an egg while the Dragon 2 dome looks more like the small end of an egg.
On the whole, the Chinese capsule looks more like Dragon 1 than Dragon 2.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Just like Dragon and burned the same. Unlike CST-100. If it had a flatter cone it would not burn. Starliner was clean. Must have some spectacular flames out the windows.