Something Very BIG is Happening to China's Space, Better than NASA & SpaceX!

Something Very BIG is Happening to China's Space, Better than NASA & SpaceX! === #spacezone #spacex #starship #spacexstarship === Something Very BIG is Happening to China's Space, Better than NASA & SpaceX! A new space race is underway. The destination is still the Moon—but this time, the United States may not be in the lead. Instead, China appears to be making steady, confident strides toward its lunar ambitions. So, how fast is China advancing? What’s driving their progress? And what could it mean if they get there first? Let’s find out. Just last week at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, China successfully conducted the second static fire test of its Long March-10 carrier rocket — the country’s next-generation launch vehicle designed for future crewed lunar missions. This marks a major milestone in China’s roadmap to land astronauts on the Moon. Something Very BIG is Happening to China's Space, Better than NASA & SpaceX! At 3 p.m., following the ignition command from the test control center, all seven engines of the rocket's first stage ignited simultaneously. The test lasted for 320 seconds and followed multiple procedures as planned. According to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the tethered hot fire focused on verifying engine performance under low-thrust conditions and testing secondary restart capabilities. This test comes just under a month after the first tethered hot fire conducted at the same site on August 15. Together, the two tests have fully validated the performance of the first stage’s seven-engine propulsion system and confirmed the reliability of the recovery-phase program design. The Long March-10 is being developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a subsidiary of CASC. It is intended to support China's manned lunar exploration program and will be capable of launching both crewed spacecraft and lunar landers. Something Very BIG is Happening to China's Space, Better than NASA & SpaceX! The Long March-10 series includes two main configurations. The standard Long March-10 is a three-stage rocket with two boosters. It has a diameter of 5 meters and a maximum height of 92.5 meters, and it will handle launch missions for both manned spacecraft and lunar landers. The Long March-10A is a two-stage, partially reusable version of the rocket. It also has a 5-meter diameter but is shorter, standing at 67 meters tall. Its first stage is designed for recovery and reuse. The 10A version will be used primarily for launching the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft and Tianzhou cargo spacecraft during the operational phase of China's space station program.