As the saying goes, the back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, and the front waves die on the beach!
Chinese companies are making rapid progress in rocket recycling, and at this pace, Musk's SpaceX advantage will not last long.
Compared with the United States, the people who have built the Great Wall are better at doing super projects, and they are destined to be far ahead.
Achievements of China's aerospace private enterprises
Although compared with the United States, the mainland's aerospace started late, it is undeniable that the progress is indeed rapid.
The Tiangong space station, the "Chang'e" lunar probe, the "Tianwen-1" Mars probe, etc., these achievements are at the world's leading level, and they are really not boasting.
Despite this, in the 2023 year-end summary, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation still frankly said that compared with SpaceX, there are obvious gaps and deficiencies in the development concept, scientific research and production mode, key core technologies, quality, efficiency and benefits of the group company.
So, where exactly are the gaps?
For example, SpaceX's proud recyclable rocket technology is not available to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, resulting in the frequency and cost of launches being surpassed by SpaceX.
But the big brother doesn't, it doesn't mean that the younger brothers of the aerospace private enterprises at the bottom don't have it, the industry is big, and the private enterprises are working hard.
As we all know, the biggest difficulty in recyclable rocket technology lies in precise control and navigation.
Rockets must undergo complex dynamic processes when returning to Earth, including re-entry of the atmosphere, slowing down, and precise landing.
This requires highly accurate control systems and algorithms to ensure that the rocket can safely and accurately return to the intended landing site.
In this regard, SpaceX, as the first company to eat crabs, has tasted the sweetness, but China's private space company Interstellar Glory is not far behind and has also made a major breakthrough.
For example, its "hyperbola-2" demonstration rocket successfully conducted its first vertical take-off and landing flight test last year.
This time not only achieved the first reusable rocket reusable flight in China, but also made Interstellar Glory the third company in the world to successfully achieve reusable rocket testing.
However, some people openly questioned, why blow it, isn't it Musk's credit for opening up patented technology?
Anyone who knows anything about technology would say such a thing.
For example, Musk's Falcon rocket uses liquid oxygen kerosene, while Interstellar Glory's hyperbolic rocket uses liquid oxygen methane.
The so-called liquid oxygen methane is a mixture of liquid oxygen and methane, which is the main component of natural gas, and is environmentally friendly.
The combustion products are mainly water and carbon dioxide, and compared with the traditional liquid oxygen kerosene fuel, it produces less harmful emissions and carbon deposition.
Even SpaceX's "Starship" can't do it, and it has tried and failed.
In response to netizens' questions, the chief designer of the hyperbolic rocket replied even more domineeringly: "We can't find any relevant information about Musk's rocket recovery, we can only look at the appearance and see the general configuration, but the internal details are not visible to us."
Think about it, let's not talk about such a key technology, how can Musk make it public, take 10,000 steps back and say, even if Musk is willing to open up, will the U.S. government allow it?
In addition to interstellar glory, the mainland's Blue Arrow aerospace is also close behind.
On January 9, 2024, the private enterprise carried out the vertical take-off and landing test of the Suzaku 3 VTVL-1 test rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, and the mission was a complete success.
It is understood that the test rocket is the first flight test platform to verify the key technology of the vertical return of the first substage of the Suzaku 3 large liquid oxygen methane reusable launch vehicle.
It adopts an 80-ton "Tianque-12" improved liquid oxygen methane engine based on continuous orbit verification, and the maximum take-off mass of the whole rocket can reach 68 tons, which is currently the largest vertical take-off and landing test arrow in China.
This test verifies the vertical recovery capability of the rocket at low altitude and low speed, the matching between the control system and the engine thrust control performance, and the guidance control algorithm of the rocket vertical recovery.
In the next step, on the basis of the success of the first phase of the 100-meter flight test, Blue Arrow Aerospace will organize and carry out the VTVL-1 test rocket 10-kilometer flight test to further verify the key technologies of vertical return of reusable rockets.
After all these are all right, Blue Arrow Aerospace said that Suzaku 3 will be launched in 2025.
It is reported that Suzaku 3 is the next generation of reusable liquid oxygen methane launch vehicle, and it is also the first stainless steel liquid launch vehicle in the mainland.
Among them, the number of design reuse of a sub-stage is not less than 20 times, and the low-orbit carrying capacity of the one-time use mission can reach 21.3 tons.
In terms of launch cost, it can be reduced by 80% to 90% compared with single-use rockets.
By the way, there is also the Gravity-1 launch vehicle launched from the sea by the private enterprise Oriental Space not long ago.
At the launch site, the fireworks were as big as if the entire launch ship had been blown away, and then, the rockets flew out of the giant fireworks, which was spectacular.
It is reported that Gravity-1 adopts a three-stage semi-all-solid bundle configuration, with a height of about 30 meters, and the diameter of the core stage and booster is 2.65 meters.
The take-off weight is 405 tons, the take-off thrust is 600 tons, the low-earth orbit carrying capacity is 6.5 tons, and the 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity is 4.2 tons.
It has been learned that the most critical solid rocket engine of the "Gravity-1" is mainly developed and provided by the Fourth Academy of the Aerospace Science and Technology Group.
Although the official did not reveal what it is, some netizens said that it may be the same engine of DF41, if it is really like that, it will be even more powerful.
Some enthusiastic netizens speculated that if measured by weight, if the "Gravity One" replaces the load with a nuclear warhead, it can be loaded with at least 6 Dongfeng-41 intercontinental missiles.
According to the calculation that one Dongfeng-41 carries 10 nuclear warheads, then it is 60 nuclear warheads.
Good guys, when a rocket is transformed into a terrifying giant nuclear missile, I ask which country can withstand it?
What's more worth mentioning is that the real power of "Gravity One" is not the capacity, but the low manufacturing cost.
It is reported that the cost of the whole arrow is only 195 million yuan, about 27.22 million US dollars. Based on a low-Earth orbit capacity of 6.5 tons, the launch cost is only $4,184/kg, while the Falcon 9 carpool is quoted at $5,500/kg.
It is estimated that Musk will not be able to sleep at this time, this and this... A certain eastern country is progressing too fast.
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It is a good thing that domestic private aerospace enterprises are competing for a hundred flowers, and there will be progress only when there is competition, and the previous private aviation is a clear example.
The biggest feature of the private sector is that it dares to take risks, rapid iteration, coupled with high R&D efficiency and short business processes, if the industrial chain is formed, it can also reduce costs on a large scale.
Well, let's roll it up in China first, and after it rolls out, it will be invincible.
So again, as long as it is a field that the Chinese are involved in, it is a matter of time before it becomes a cabbage price.