China has unveiled the design for its new reusable space shuttle, set to ferry cargo between Earth and the country’s Tiangong Space Station.
While we hear a lot about the International Space Station (ISS), it’s not the only science laboratory orbiting our planet. China operates the smaller Tiangong Space Station, which launched its core module in 2021 and now offers a permanent base for a crew of up to six astronauts.
Currently boasting three modules, the Chinese Space Agency plans to expand the space station to six modules in the coming years. The space station, as you might expect given the lack of farms and manufacturing equipment in space, needs regular resupplies in order to keep it functioning and the crew “alive”. For this purpose, and to bring experiments and other equipment back to Earth, China has commissioned a new reusable space shuttle.
The design, and a small prototype, of the Haolong Cargo Space Shuttle have now been revealed in a video from China Central Television.
Currently, the space agency uses the non-reusable Tianzhou cargo spacecraft – designed to burn up on re-entry and aimed into the Pacific Ocean – and the Shenzhou spacecraft for taking crew and a limited amount of supplies to and from the space station. The new Haolong cargo spaceship, measuring 10 meters (32.8 feet) long will weigh less than half of its predecessor, saving on costs as well as being more friendly to the environment than the single-use model.
The plan is for the spacecraft to dock with the space station, and have the astronauts unload and reload it before it returns to Earth uncrewed.
“The Haolong space cargo shuttle is a winged aircraft with an aerodynamic design featuring a large wingspan and a high lift-to-drag ratio,” Fang Yuanpeng, chief designer of Haolong, explained in the video unveiling the new craft. “With a blunt-nosed fuselage and large, swept-back delta wings, it combines the characteristics of both spacecraft and aircraft, allowing it to be launched into orbit by a carrier rocket and land on an airport runway like a plane.”
As well as new modules for the space station, the space agency is planning to create a new space telescope that can dock with Tiangong for maintenance and further work.
