
China successfully launches its largest reusable rocket - velmu
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1160951.shtml
======
_Microft
They launched _China 's_ largest reusable rocket. 8m tall, less than a meter
wide from the images and it reached a height of just 300 _meters_. No orbit,
no space, no payload. This is at SpaceX grasshopper levels, see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper_(rocket)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper_\(rocket\))
for comparison.

DC-X and New Shepard also launched and landed vertically and that at far
higher heights.

The problem is not landing a rocket vertically, it is to launch a payload
(recovery mechanisms mustn't eat up all the payload mass), make it back
through atmosphere at supersonic speeds and still have means (or propellant
left) to achieve a landing.

It's a good step for the chinese space company LinkSpace but pretty much non-
news for others in my opinion.

~~~
melling
Guess we’re jaded, but if it happened 10 years ago...

I found this Reuter’s story on the launch.

Exciting, if they meet their goals.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/space-exploration-china-
link...](https://www.reuters.com/article/space-exploration-china-
linkspace/update-1-chinese-space-startup-revs-up-for-reusable-rocket-race-
idUSL4N256069)

“The Beijing-based company aims to launch its next-generation RLV-T16 next
year that will be capable of reaching an altitude of up to 150 kilometers, Hu
said.”

“LinkSpace previously told Reuters it hoped to charge no more than 30 million
yuan ($4.25 million) per reusable launch.”

~~~
mabbo
"Altitude" is a weird metric for rockets because going up is useless- you
immediately fall back down.

Achieving orbit requires a horizontal velocity many times higher than the
vertical velocity achieved.

~~~
liability
They may well have provided more relevant figures which the reporter or editor
failed to understand the value of and consequently emitted in favor of the
figure that played to their _" space is up"_ worldview.

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heimatau
Honest question, did they steal this technology? Or have they innovated a new
way to created a reusable rocket?

~~~
xref
You’re being downvoted but this seems like a very legitimate question seeing
as a major part of the current US/China trade dispute is appropriation of
intellectual property

~~~
andygates
Parallel reinvention happens all the time. Consider steam engines, web
browsers. Once a way has been found to do the thing, it's surprisingly
straightforward to redo the thing.

------
jaimex2
I wouldn't brag if my 'most advanced reusable rocket' could only climb 300
meters.

Slow propaganda news day in China?

~~~
tfha
That's something. SpaceX started around that scale too, remember? 5 years from
now they might actually be getting payloads to space.

~~~
simonh
They are already getting payloads into orbit, just not on this test vehicle.
They have an operational, but non-reusable small sat launcher, so they
definitely mean business and aren’t just a startup with a research project.

