That makes perfect sense. I would be surprised if someone does a dedicated 1st stage recover test. After a full rocket launch, the 1st stage is spent anyway, either having it crashed somewhere or using it to test vertical landing makes no difference to the launch mission.
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
broadsword
Brigadier
A lot of shaking in a grid fin.
The whole thing's ramshackle. It's true garage prototype engineering, cobbled together with twine and duct tape and does the job perfectly.
broadsword
Brigadier
Jump to the 34th second, and see how it shakes violently and yes, lands perfectly
A 10km height flight test is already pretty full on as well.
From memory, SpaceX's F9 prototypes (grasshopper and F9 Dev1) only flew up to a max of 1km altitude by 2014 which was the last and highest hopper test that occurred, and during that period were already doing controlled descents over the ocean with first stages with Falcon 9 rockets, which culminated in the first successful landing in 2015.
It'll be interesting to see how quickly they can succeed with a ZQ-3 first stage recovery.
One difference is that while their hopper tests seem to be pushing the boundary a bit more than SpaceX's hopper tests for F9, the F9 was already conducting successful launches for a couple of years during that period alongside the hop tests
by78
General
Could you please stop spamming this thread with official or unofficial NATO/U.S. slideshows, reports, monograms, notices, press releases, and other assortment of nothing burgers?
It is a far stretch to call your posts related to China's space program. You have acted like a spokesperson of US government, and turning this thread into a propaganda department of US.
Also remind you that this is a thread about China's space program. Whatever USG thinks, sees or says is off topic. It is not a place to stir up confrontation between two countries' space programs.
I personally petition moderators to take actions.
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@escobar
I've deleted your post because it is just a regurgitation of US government statements without providing any useful commentary of your own, and it is at best only marginally relevant to this thread.
Such posts are not inherently disallowed in these kind of threads, but there is an expectation for some reflective and critical commentary justifying why it deserves space in the thread.
This is a warning, next time there will be a temporary ban.
I've deleted your post because it is just a regurgitation of US government statements without providing any useful commentary of your own, and it is at best only marginally relevant to this thread.
Such posts are not inherently disallowed in these kind of threads, but there is an expectation for some reflective and critical commentary justifying why it deserves space in the thread.
This is a warning, next time there will be a temporary ban.
