China Launches a 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft' | Hacker News Reader

China Launches a 'Reusable Experimental Spacecraft'

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81 pointsbclemens48 comments

"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.

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.

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.

> 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.

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.

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.

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.

But that does not correctly describe how the relationship with the Soviets were handled - that's not how I remember it. There was always cognisance of conflict, and there would have been absolutely no chance of a tilted economic relationship pumping hundreds of billions into a military which is fundamentally incompatible with democratic values.

Continuing on the current path will keep things peaceful for now, but happens in twenty years? The belief that China will open up has spectacularly failed.

Try not be blinded by political scheming, China is not trying to conquer the world and US is also not trying to bring peace, the game is not as black and white as you would believe and the "good guys" will be shown as less good in 50 years when the secrets will be reveled and propaganda will switch to something else.

Not cooperating in space related topics is as stupid as US demanding not to use mathematics or physics developed by China. Science should not care about the politics of the current dudes in power.

Europe is looking to the west and noticing eroding values and a very different interpretation of what 'free world' is supposed to be.

US is collaborating with Russia in space, you can keep politics out of this.

Thankfully we all have the pure wholesome United States to strive towards.

Get a grip hey. I'd honestly prefer to be a Uyghur in China then a black man in the US. At least one has a future.

China threatens one country, but NATO and mainly US actually did total destruction of dozens of countries.

> China's (CCP's) values are wholly different from the free world's

I dont think so much, CCP/China's value overlaps west a lot: * They at least value personal fortune, the whole society shows a frenzy higher than US to chase personal fortune. Take an example [1]. * They both believe in market economy. With different flavors. SMBs are both the major employers of the economy in both countries. * They both put people in internment camp out of perceived external threads, without factual evidence (WWII Japanese, Xinjiang Uygurs) * They both bully neighbors (US neighbors were historically suffered territory loss to US, and Cuba was shutdown from the international society by US driven effort, China bullied Vietnam and now claiming territory in south China sea)

[1] https://medium.com/the-banterbury-times/why-do-chinese-peopl...

> a competed US leadership could invite China

Yet, you omit the Chinese leadership that's where the problem really lies. The CCP has a Han-supremacy drug problem and President Xi intends to steer towards a singular vision, whether the world agrees with it or not.

To mine the asteroid belt? To create power plants that use space as cooling and project power back? There are great options out there.

> To create power plants that use space as cooling and project power back?

Space is the absolute worst place for thermal power plant. 1) It's not cold unless you are in earth shadow. 2) You need to use EM radiation for cooling, which is like < 1% as good as thermal conductors cooling.

I think it is doable:

https://www.osti.gov/includes/opennet/includes/Understanding...

There is no space race to anywhere.

SpaceX just got the short end of the new Airforce launch contract, ULA got the big end for a rocket that’s never flown and won’t fly for another year. That’s after getting 2/3s as much as Boeing for a NASA crew launch capsule.

If SpaceX ever wants large proportions of federal space launch contracts, they have to start building rocket parts across all 50 states, especially Alabama.

Meh, I think SLS will fold after a flight or two. There is no way to justify spending $800M per launch, assuming they launch at least twice, every 1.5-2 years when NASA could spend $150M for a Falcon Heavy launch or less when Starship starts flying. Especially when SpaceX can provide many launches per year.

Then again the US government doesn't really care if taxpayer money is well spent. NASA needs to shift gears to science and exploration. More rovers and deep space probes please and thank you.

The Senate Launch System provides many many jobs and thus many many votes for politicians who support it. If rational thought was at the driver’s seat it would have been cancelled way back.

The SLS is an indirect project to ensure the US ICBM solid fuel rocket manufacturing know-how and skills are not lost.

> Musk was a genius to start SpaceX, or he really timed it right.

SpaceX was founded in 2002, I don't think Musk was timing anything.

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.

Nice. Any idea how big it is?

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.

Is it going to look like a SpaceX clone?

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