The Chinese company Space Transportation conducted the first successful test flight of the Tianxing-2 rocket, which became the third flight test of the Tianxing series of missiles, according to the company's official WeChat channel. Space Transportation plans to create inexpensive reusable carriers with a horizontal landing, as well as a tourist spaceplane.
The Chinese company Space Transportation (also known as Beijing Lingkong Tianxing Technology Co.), founded in 2018, is developing a family of reusable space aircraft of the Tianxing series. It, like other enterprises of the People's Republic of China, is looking for ways to reduce the cost of developing and operating payload carriers through their reuse. The company wants to create a line of inexpensive reusable carriers with a horizontal landing that will not rely solely on planning, and will also use parachutes during the return to Earth stage. There is information that Tianxing-3 will be a small orbiter capable of delivering a payload to low-Earth orbit, and Tianxing-4 will become a suborbital spaceplane for tourists. It is expected that the first flight of a prototype of such a ship will take place in 2023, and the first manned flight — in 2025.
In April 2019, the company conducted a test flight of a demonstration carrier as part of the development of a reusable launch vehicle with vertical takeoff and horizontal landing "Tianxing-1". In November 2020 [...], the engine for the Tianxing-2 rocket was tested, and at the beginning of this year, the chassis was tested [...] .
On the morning of August 31, 2021, the first successful test flight of the Tianxing-2 rocket took place, which became the third flight test of the series of missiles. No pictures, videos or additional information about the flight has yet been published.
It is worth noting that in early August, Space Transportation attracted a large amount of funding for work on the creation of a hypersonic spacecraft. Its first flight is scheduled for 2028.
Earlier, we talked about how China conducted a successful test flight of its reusable suborbital aircraft for a reusable space transport system.
Alexander Voityuk