China’s Proposed Cargo Shuttle, the Haolong, Has Entered Development

The 2024 China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition was held in Zhuhai final week – from November twelfth to seventeenth, 2024. Since 1996, and with help from the Chinese language aerospace business, this biennial competition options precise merchandise, commerce talks, technological exchanges, and an air present. This yr’s huge spotlight was China’s newly introduced reusable house cargo shuttle, the Haolong (Chinese language for “dragon”). In accordance with chief designer Fang Yuanpeng, the spacecraft has entered the engineering phase and will probably be prepared for house within the close to future.

The Haolong shuttle is being developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, which has developed a number of Chinese language fighter jets previously. It has a big wingspan, measuring eight meters (26.25 ft) in width and about 10 meters (33 ft) lengthy, with a excessive lift-to-drag ratio. From the picture offered (above), the design is clearly impressed by the now-retired Space Shuttle and options the identical sort of payload bay with two bay doorways. Whereas the cargo shuttle has a comparable wingspan (8.7 m; 29 ft), it’s considerably shorter than the Space Shuttle, which measured 56.1 m (184 ft) in size.

This makes the Haolong (when it comes to dimension) extra akin to the X-37B and China’s Shenlong spaceplane. Like these spaceplanes, the Haolong spacecraft will probably be autonomous and have cutting-edge aviation applied sciences. The design was certainly one of a number of ideas issued in response to a solicitation by the China Manned House Company (CMSA) for low-cost and industrial cargo spacecraft. These will present logistical help for China’s Tiangong house station because it undergoes expansion within the coming years.

In accordance with the state-owned information company Xinhua, the winners of the solicitation had been introduced on October twenty ninth. This included the CMSA’s Haolong shuttle and the Qingzhou spacecraft, an built-in cargo capsule submitted by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAMCAS). In accordance with Lin Xiqiang, the deputy director of the CMSA, each firms gained contracts for the flight verification part of their proposals. In accordance with Fang, the house shuttle Haolong will launch into orbit by way of a industrial service rocket, make atmospheric reentry, and land horizontally on a runway.

As soon as it reaches orbit, it can unfold its photo voltaic panels and open its docking defend. The shuttle’s rear will dock with Tiangong, the place taikonauts can entry the cargo bay and switch the payload to the house station. In accordance with Fang, “the Hoalong can obtain upkeep much like an plane after touchdown, so it could possibly conduct one other mission.” The spacecraft has already accomplished the design part and is transferring into engineering growth. Fang indicated that this part is properly underway and will probably be adopted by the cargo mission part. “I imagine that the general public will see it quickly,” he stated.

In the meantime, the Qingzhou cargo spacecraft has a cargo quantity of as much as 27 cubic meters, which is predicted to offer logistics flexibility and considerably cut back transportation prices. In accordance with Xinhua, Qingzhou additionally has an clever transportation system able to supporting crewed and uncrewed in-orbit experiments. The cargo spacecraft is scheduled to be launched by the Lijian-2, a reusable rocket presently underneath growth by CAS House. This rocket is certainly one of a number of reusable medium-lift launch autos China plans to debut within the coming years.

Lin additionally famous that “this strategic transfer won’t solely slash cargo transportation prices for the house station but additionally pave the best way for brand spanking new alternatives within the development of the nation’s industrial house business.” In accordance with market analysis, China’s industrial house business is predicted to achieve a market worth of 2.34 trillion yuan ($323.35 billion) by the top of 2024.

Additional Studying: Global Times