Enlarge / A Lengthy March 2F provider rocket carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart on June 5, 2022. (credit score: VCG/VCG by way of Getty Pictures)
Final week one in all China’s most dependable rockets, the Lengthy March 2F automobile, took off from a spaceport within the Gobi Desert carrying a secretive house airplane.
In a brief report on the launch by China’s state-owned Xinhua information service, the federal government offered little element in regards to the “reusable check spacecraft” past saying it will stay in orbit for “a time period” and offering technical verification of reusable and in-orbit companies.
That is the second time China launched what’s believed to be a small house airplane, seemingly comparable in dimension and scope to the US Area Power’s experimental X-37B automobile. This uncrewed X-37B resembles NASA’s house shuttle, however at lower than 10 meters in size, it’s significantly smaller. The automobile’s cargo bay can maintain one thing in regards to the dimension of an ordinary fridge.
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