Made a larger crater than last time, came in hot. It’ll take them a few more, but they’re getting there.
The key difference is that their take on the Falcon 9 design uses methane instead of RP1, which burns clean and doesn’t require soot cleanup, so the refurbishment should be easier once they refine the design
Methalox, so hot right now. Starship, New Glenn, Zhuque 3, Long March 12, Neutron, Nova, Terran R…
Vulcan, Hyperbola-3, Long March 9…
I’m not clued into the Chinese aerospace situation. There seem to be a lot of rockets appearing. Are these truly private companies competing, design bureaus like the soviets did, or state agencies?
China’s strategy with new tech is to subsidize a number of startups and have them compete until there are a few winners.
It’s a mix. And I don’t fully understand it.
The Long March rockets come from CALT and SAST within CASC, which is state owned.
The Kinetica rockets are from CAS Space, which is state owned.
LandSpace (Zhuque rockets) is private, but their first rocket was solid fueled and probably based on a missile, so who knows. Then they pivoted to liquids.
There are more. I think i-Space is on that same solid missile to liquid arc. And Galactic Energy. And Orienspace. I guarantee I’m missing more, but there’s definitely a theme here.
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing what you know.
I just ordered new boosters for my diy rocket from Aliexpress! Sure If I got them from Alibaba they would be half the price but it would take a month to get them. Plus the return policy.
While this is impressive, I really hope we go extinct as a species before any successfull off world colony can be set up.
We commit enough atrocities against each other on earth as it is, and that’s under the pretense of ‘ethical oversight’ and ‘laws’, and is solely confined to our one planet. If the capitalists get us into space, how long could it really be before chattel slavery returns? Generations of people will be born on remote mining/refining/factory colonies with nothing but company script, and no way to leave or place to go to if they did. They will be seen as a vital and exploitable resource.
Considering the vast majority of people right now on earth are already basically born into indentured slavery under capitalism, this seems like a very real possibility.
I wish the gay space communism future could be real, I love science fiction, I just don’t believe humanity is actually capable of it.
