A common saying often attributed to Oscar Wilde is that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness,” and the latest example of that comes from the space race. China unveiled a new space shuttle last week to keep the Tiangong station supplied as the nation expands its space operations. The Haolong shuttle suspiciously shares the same white with black thermal tile underbelly design as NASA’s retired shuttle.
The Haolong shuttle is different in one important way from the Space Shuttle: It’s unmanned. The Chinese shuttle is designed simply to launch cargo up to Tiangong and return cargo to Earth. China’s space program previously didn’t have a method of bringing back equipment from orbit, as the current Tianzhou spacecraft is designed to burn up on re-entry. Space.com reported:
The shuttle’s engineers are already hailing the design. “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, told China Central Television (CCTV). “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 rocket and land on an airport runway like a plane,” he added.
However, this isn’t the first time that there has been a concerted Chinese effort to mimic American space technology. State-backed startup DeepBlue is attempting to recreate SpaceX’s vertical landing reusable rockets and captured incredible footage when a test failed catastrophically in September. The company, just like SpaceX, claimed it learned a lot from its rocket exploding on the landing pad.
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