China declares price war on SpaceX reusable rockets, with economy driving new aerospace programme
- Innovative transport system will cost just a fraction of the existing Long March rockets in response to growing challenges from the US
- Chinese space authorities require space transport system to conduct more than 1,000 flights and carry over 10,000 passengers to space each year by 2045
A new aerospace launching system under development in China is required to cut the cargo cost per kilogram to 5 per cent to that of the existing Long March rockets, according to scientists involved in the project.
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China launches Long March 2D rocket carrying Beijing-3 and three other satellites
With a top speed exceeding Mach 20, the hypersonic space plane could deliver the same payload from Shanghai to an airport in San Francisco in less than an hour, according to project lead scientist Song Zhengyu, of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a CASC subsidiary in Beijing.
Chinese space authorities require the plane to be reused more than 100 times and have fewer than three failures per 1,000 flights, according to Song’s team in a paper published in Astronautical Systems Engineering Technology journal last month.
These goals were set after evaluation of the pace of China’s technological progress and international advances “pioneered by SpaceX”, said Song and his colleagues.
China’s Long March rockets are among the least expensive methods of accessing space and they have played an important role in the rapid expansion of China’s space infrastructure in recent years.
