/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11277393
>They have a Dragon clone in the works too, pic related.

That “Dragon clone” is the next-generation Chinese crew capsule, designed to replace the current Shenzhou. Calling it a Dragon clone is an insult, considering it’s designed to be lunar-capable. The capsule in your picture will launch this year, on the first flight of the Long-March 5B variant (the LEO version without an upper-stage).

>>11086430
>Out of curiosity, what do you believe China's plans are for space?

Their current priority, as I previously stated is getting their Mir-sized space station launched. To do this, first they have to get the Long March 5B (specialised heavy LEO payloads version) up and running, which they plan to do next year. Furthermore, apparently their building a new Long March 7 variant- LM-7A to replace the current crew launcher: LM-2F and initially launch the Shenzhou and new crewed spacecraft to this station. The LM-7A is also in consideration to launch future probes. However, apparently the Chinese crewed spaceflight authority doesn’t like the LM-5,7,11 family and wants a new family of launch vehicles specifically for crewed spacecraft. This family involves two LVs: a LEO version using a single core with 7 YF-100 staged combustion Kerolox engines clustered and a Moon version with three cores (Falcon Heavy style), they would launch China’s next generation capsule and potential landers. This family would be used in coordination with the Long March 9 mega-rocket (140T to LEO and 50T to TLI) for China’s crewed lunar landings, the latter being used only for heavy cargo e.g. big Moon base modules. Finally, China is building a medium-sized reusable rocket called Long-March, it uses Falcon-style retro propulsion but also has non-jettisoned SRBS for ballast. Moving onto probes, China plans to send a Mars orbiter, lander and rover in 2020 on a LM-5; LM-5 will also be used to launch the next Chang’E lander- Change’E 5 which is a sample return mission, China plans to launch more Chang’E Moon missions with a 6 and 7 being in the pipeline. In the mid 2020s China plans to launch a Jupiter probe as well. Finally, China has fuck ton of ‘private’ companies who are building solid booster (missile derived) small sat launchers and then moving onto to bigger liquid fuelled designs, some even designed to be reusable, examples are iSpace, LinkSpace and LandSpace.