China achieved a milestone in space aeronautics over the weekend when it launched into orbit an experimental space vehicle that returned to Earth in two days - all in one piece - and right to where it was designed to land.
The launch has set the stage for China in its aggressive campaign to develop and manufacture hardware for more affordable junkets to space, the Xinhua News Agency divulged.
The low-key military-led space program has disclosed few specifics about the orbital vehicle that was launched on Friday onboard a Chinese-built Long March 2F booster from the Jiuquan Satellite launch facility. The vehicle returned to Earth on Sunday.
Details about the technologies used in the mission were being withheld, as was any mention of the spacecraft's size and shape. State media have yet to release video clips or images of the launch.
Speculation over the space module has flooded China's social media, with some netizens comparing it to the U.S. Air Force's X-37B, a self-operating spacecraft built by Boeing that can stay in orbit for extended periods of time before returning back to Earth without a human pilot.
In 2003, Beijing sent its first astronaut into orbit onboard the Shenzhou rocket and set up a space station. Sixteen years later, China became the first nation to launch and successfully land an autonomous rover on the moon's barely-visible far side.
If China's latest space vehicle was similar to the X-37B, its size would be roughly one-fifth of the U.S. Space Shuttle. The U.S. Air Force said it is currently testing the X-37B for a wide array of new technologies including jet propulsion systems, new-generation space materials and avionics.
Meanwhile, China said it would deploy another space vehicle this year that is reusable and capable of flying like a regular plane. At the moment, a Chinese space vehicle is on its way to Mars carrying a remote-controlled rover to study the Red Planet's vast terrain.
