From: "Robert Hooi" <rwlh21@sbcglobal.net> Date: July 22, 2015 at 11:35:53 AM CDT To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;> Subject:China's spaceplane programme Reply-To: "Robert Hooi" <rwlh21@sbcglobal.net>
China's spaceplane programme
The Chinese aerospace industry is currently developing two reusable launch vehicle (RLV) systems. The first one is a crewed space shuttle launched vertically atop the Changzheng 5 (CZ-5) rocket. The second is a smaller unmanned suborbital spaceplane that can launch a second-stage rocket to deliver payload to orbit. The unmanned system is expected to enter service before 2020 to supplement the country's existing range of conventional non-reusable launch vehicles. The crewed space shuttle may replace the existing Shenzhou human capsule for crew transportation to the future space station by 2030.
Programme 863-204
China's spaceplane effort can trace its origin to the Programme 863-204 that was launched in 1986. The programme, set up under China's long-term high-tech research and development initiative (Programme 863), was tasked to study the concept of the future space station crew transportation and launch vehicle systems. The programme committee examined the spacecraft concepts proposed by various research organisations across the country, and selected six for further evaluation.
Inspired by the success of NASA's Space Shuttle programme, many in the Chinese aerospace industry initially favoured a similar space shuttle or spaceplane design. Out of the six final proposals for Programme 863-204, five called for a winged reusable launch system, and only one called for a conventional human capsule launched by non-reusable launch vehicle. Although a space shuttle or spaceplane system would have been far superior to the (then regarded) obsolete human capsule, China had neither the technological capability nor the financial strength to build such a sophisticated system.
In the end, the space shuttle and spaceplane proposals were rejected and the human capsule was adopted for China's human space programme (Project 921). However, the reusable launch vehicle had not been completely abandoned. Decision was made to postpone the development of a reusable launch vehicle until such a system became affordable, with relevant research and studies being continued.
CALT Spaceplane Concepts
In 2006, it was reported that China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the primary designer and manufacturer of China's Changzheng (Long March) family of launch vehicles, was developing two reusable launch vehicle concepts. The first design, possibly based on the TiaoJiao 1 concept first developed in the 1980s for Programme 863-204, is a manned small space shuttle launched vertically atop the CZ-5 (ChangZheng 5) heavy-lift launch vehicle and landing horizontally through unpowered glide. The orbiter vehicle is about one sixth the size of the NASA Space Shuttle.
Impression of the new CALT space shuttle, launched atop the CZ-5 booster
The second design, possibly debuted Aotian 1, is a smaller unmanned, horizontal takeoff and landing (HTHL) suborbital spaceplane that could launch a small second-stage rocket capable of placing 1,000 kg payload into orbit.
Computer generated model of CALT's unmanned RLV concept (image: CALT)
Shenlong and Project 863-706
In 2005, an unofficial photo posted on Chinese Internet anonymously revealed a small spaceplane vehicle known as Shenlong ("Devine Dragon"). The vehicle, possibly used as a technological demonstrator for performing test flights in the atmosphere, was carried under a PLA Air Force H-6 medium bomber in the photo. Later speculations suggested that the Shenlong vehicle was developed by Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute (611 Institute) in conjunction with CALT for China's spaceplane programme known as Project 863-706. The involvement of CALT in the programme hints a connection between Shenlong/Project 863-706 and the Aotian 1 unmanned RLV system.
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Shenlong tech demonstrator carried under the H-6 bomber
Chinese state television footage showing thermal analysis of an unmanned spaceplane vehicle being released from an H-6 bomber
Automated High-Speed Approach and Landing Test
A short, seemingly benign news article published on a local government website in early 2014 has, by accident, revealed that a highly secretive landing test of an unmanned spaceplane vehicle had been successfully conducted. The article, published by a department of the Fujian Provincial Government, praised the significant contribution made by a local enterprise specialised in bearings to the successful flight test of a "key aerospace system". According to the report, the vehicle had completed an "automated high-speed approach and landing test", marking the grasp of the associated core technology.
Coincidently, the same flight test was also mentioned in an official Thank You Letter issued by CALT to Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU). The letter, dated October 2013 and signed by the programme director and chief designer of an "unmanned aerospace vehicle system", praised NWPU for its work on an electrical braking system used by the vehicle. The name of the programme was carefully blacked out on NWPU's website. The letter claimed that the successful test of the unmanned vehicle not only enabled full grasp of automated high-speed approach and landing, but had also made a number of unprecedented achievements in the field of spaceplane both domestically and internationally.
Although the exact type of the unmanned vehicle involved in the test is unknown at this stage, it can be assumed that the vehicle is somehow associated with the AoTian 1 development. Based on this progress, the vehicle is likely going to enter operational service by 2018-2020.
Future Crewed Transportation System
In his article "Pilot Study of the Space Transportation System for Space Station" published on an internal professional journal in January 2000, Zhu Yong-gui, the chief designer of the above mentioned unmanned spaceplane system, suggested that China's crew transportation system should begin with a non-reusable human capsule, followed by a two-stage to orbit (TSTO) RLV system, and finally followed by a single-stage to orbit (SSTO) RLV system. It appears that this thinking may have indeed become the roadmap for China's future crew transportation system.
Based on this roadmap, it can be anticipated that a second-generation two-stage VTHL space shuttle system will replace the existing first-generation Shenzhou human capsule for crew transportation to and from China's permanently-manned space station around 2025-2030.
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