
China Launches a 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft' - bclemens
https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2020/09/china-launches-reusable-experimental.html
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fspeech
"We have no clue how long the spacecraft will stay in orbit. It will be
interesting to see when and where it lands."

Hmm, it already returned after a two day stint.

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echelon
China seems intent to start a new space race. It's no coincidence that our
Space Force was just created.

I wonder how "friendly" this competition is going to be.

Musk was a genius to start SpaceX, or he really timed it right. He's going to
get so many federal dollars. It'll probably be worth more than Tesla.

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simion314
A race to where? First base opn the Moon/Mars ? I don't follow this topic but
it could just be that countries like China, India have a space program and
they are using it, hopefully we get better diplomats leading this big
countries to avoid any waste on useless military/propaganda missions - a
competed US leadership could invite China on the ISS.

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jeswin
> competed US leadership could invite China on the ISS.

And then what, watch the CCP trample HongKong, run massive internment camps,
and threaten Taiwan with total destruction? China's (CCP's) values are wholly
different from the free world's; I can't think of a way to co-exist when they
can get upset for even just news reporting.

The west has pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into a dictatorship and
they're building a powerful military with it. And Europe mostly hasn't even
woken up to this yet.

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pjc50
We said all that and more about the Soviet Union, and still made gestures of
international co-operation. Because it was better than nuclear war.

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Teever
Do you think those situations are comparable?

Is the threat of nuclear war between China and the US comparable to the threat
of nuclear war between the US and the USSR?

Perhaps a more comparable situation is between the UK or US and Nazi Germany
in the mid thirties?

It would have been a terrible idea to embark on shared technological and
exploratory expeditions with Nazi Germany in the 30s.

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pjc50
The big parallel with Nazi Germany could I suppose be the coziness between the
elites; all the way from little details like the Germans copying British
foxhunting to King Edward VIII having a fascist spy as a girlfriend.

However, Germany was explicitly trying to be a colonial expansionist. Having
run out of unconquered countries in Africa, all that was left to enslave was
Eastern Europe. Chinese expansionism seems much more limited.

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justicezyx
Can we focus on the technical and strategic value in terms of competition, and
put the value system and ideology aside for a moment?...

The international political competition and struggle are among the most
complicated and complex human activities. Value system and ideology are just
but one part of the driven force, and most of time is even the secondary or
irrelevant part.

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Animats
Nice. Any idea how big it is?

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sbierwagen
Long March 2F, the launch rocket, has a stated payload of 8,400 kg to LEO.

The Air Force says the X-37 has a "launch weight" of 4,990 kg. Its first
flight was on a Atlas V 501, which has a max payload of 8,123 kg to LEO.

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SubiculumCode
Is it going to look like a SpaceX clone?

