This SpaceX photo released by NASA shows the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying 24 satellites as part of the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission launching from Launch Complex 39A on June 25, 2019 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. – Four NASA technology and science payloads which will study non-toxic spacecraft fuel, deep space navigation, “bubbles” in the electrically-charged layers of Earth’s upper atmosphere, and radiation protection for satellites are among the two dozen satellites that will be put into orbit. (Photo by NASA/Joel Kowsky / NASA / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / JOEL KOWSKY / NASA” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS —
China’s first reusable spacecraft landed Sunday after two days in orbit, a possible step toward lower-cost space flight, the government announced.
The secretive, military-run space program has released few details of the craft, which was launched Friday aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s desert northwest.
The craft landed as planned at Jiuquan, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
State media have yet to publish any photos. The craft’s size and shape are unclear.
The flight “marks an important breakthrough in our country’s research on reusable spacecraft” that promise a “more convenient and inexpensive way” to reach space, Xinhua said.
ALSO READ: Lagos Airport receives first international flight after resumption
China fired its first astronaut into orbit in 2003 and has launched a space station. Last year, it became the first country to land a robot rover on the moon’s little-seen far side. A probe carrying another robot rover is en route to Mars.
The United States and the former Soviet Union both flew reusable spacecraft.
The U.S. space shuttle flew 134 missions from the 1980s until 2011. Since then, the U.S. military has developed the X-37, a robot glider that made its sixth flight in May.
The Soviet space plane, Buran, orbited the Earth twice during its single unscrewed flight in 1988.
[Associated Press]
Disclaimer
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof.