14 May 2012

Closing the Tech Gap: China’s Spaceplane

John Reed, Closing the Tech Gap: China’s Spaceplane,” DefenseTech, 14 May 2012.

That’s right, the rumors appear to be true. Beijing is joining the United States as the only nations with reusable spaceplane designs that are actually conducting test flights. Beijing reportedly sent its Divine Dragon — or Shenlong — space plane aloft for a successful atmospheric test flight in January 2011. …

…according to DT’s go-to China expert Andrew Erickson, its the speed at which China is closing the gap between the fielding of advanced technology compared to the U.S. Remember when then-defense secretary Robert Gates last year dismissed China’s new J-20 stealth fighter by saying that the PLA is about 20 years behind the Pentagon in terms of technology? The launch of the Divine Dragon less than a [year] after the X-37B made its first space flight may be an indicator that China is closing that double decade technology gap, according to Erickson. …

For the original article that this post quotes, see Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins, “Shenlong ‘Divine Dragon’ Takes Flight: Is China developing its first spaceplane?China SignPost™ (洞察中国), No. 58 (4 May 2012).