Analysts keep close eye on China's mystery space plane

SOURCE

As the next secretive flight of the U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B mini-shuttle draws closer, analysts are keeping a close eye on China’s own potential space plane, the Shenlong.

Can it be Tit for Tat response to the unmanned X-37B plane ?

Last year , Chinese MSM had reported the test flight of Shenlong Space plane [ Divine Dragon ] which was airdropped from an H-6 Bomber .

Beijing may be entering the space plane era faster than many would have predicted

Beijing’s development of space plane programs is broad-based, and their trajectory will represent a key barometer of its civil and military space intentions.

Shenlong is China’s effort to develop a re-entering aerodynamic spacecraft .The country has already stated its goal of building a 60-ton space station for future missions .

China is determined to challenge US in every frontier . Chinese threat to US is more than that from Former USSR and Iran Combined . I bet , without going to War , China cannot be stopped from becoming Next superpower .

Originally posted by UltraMarine
China is determined to challenge US in every frontier . Chinese threat to US is more than that from Former USSR and Iran Combined . I bet , without going to War , China cannot be stopped from becoming Next superpower .

The Chinese have a long way to go, what year were the glide tests for the now retired Space Shuttle? 1976...

As for the Shenlong test flight, they said: "To be sure, much remains uncertain about the nature of such a 'test,' most likely a glide/aerodynamic test from an H-6 bomber. Shenlong is very likely far less capable than the X-37B and may still be years away from yielding a vehicle with true operational capability."

Between building multiple 5th generation fighter designs, ballistic missile submarines and pioneering the Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile you have to wonder where their engineers find the time.

This is an old cold war game, the weaker power with strong internal security exaggerate their capabilities then the stronger power exaggerates the issue some more in order to ensure congressional funding of expensive military technology.

Mr. President, We Must Not Allow a Mine Shaft Gap!

reply to post by UltraMarine


Remember when Iran introduced that new drone of theirs a couple of years back? The one that they spent days bragging about how advanced it was, but that it turned out to be an over glorified ripoff of the old German V-1..............Yeah, that's what this is. It looks like some unmanned missile or rocket that they upgraded to have give it the ability to go into space. Doesn't look like it can compare to an X-37 DARPA HTV, or even the X-51. Sorry, but it doesn't seem that impressive.

P.S.
Sorry if my comment seems a little confrontational, that wasn't my intention, I'm just too lazy to go back and rewrite lol.

Originally posted by UltraMarine
China is determined to challenge US in every frontier . Chinese threat to US is more than that from Former USSR and Iran Combined . I bet , without going to War , China cannot be stopped from becoming Next superpower .

War is unnecessary, their economy is gonna collapse in about a decade when most of those factory jobs move to SE Asia, India, Africa, Latin America due to the increase associated with exporting jobs to China.

reply to post by Antonio1

War is unnecessary, their economy is gonna collapse in about a decade

I think not . Yesterday a news surfaced which states that China will pass US as top economic superpower by 2016 .

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) out of Paris writes in a new report that China will be the world’s leading nation in terms of economy in just four years’ time, with other BRICs nations likely to usurp the current top dogs during the next few decades as well.

LINK

reply to post by UltraMarine

Most of those articles and news stories are based off of the false assumption that China's economy will continue to grow as fast as it has. From what I've seen, that's unlikely to happen. Besides, those studies about china surpassing the U.S. in 2016 are based off of Purchasing Power Parity GDP, not Real GDP. The whole "China will surpass the U.S." thing reminds me of the predictions in the eighties that Japan would surpass America. Then a few years later, the lost decade starts, and now the Japanese economy has only grown by like two or three percent overall in the last 20 years. Besides, the cost of Chinese labor is increasing at a very fast rate, while the cost of labor in the rest of the third world is staying the same or decreasing. Remember, the ONLY reason China is in the position its in is because for twenty years they have had the cheapest labor force around. That was why so many jobs moved to china in the first place. At the same time, they have had a very young labor force, but most demographic data suggests that up to a quarter of their population will be elderly in the next fifteen to twenty years. This will put massive strain on their economy, similar to what happened to Japan in the nineties. Add to that the fact that the U.S. is predicted to become the largest energy producer in the world within a decade, and the resulting manufacturing renaissance that and a host of new industrial technologies will bring to the U.S., and it is very unlikely that China will become the worlds largest economy. Hate to burst your bubble, but China's fast economic growth is unsustainable.

P.S., I wouldn't trust a Russian state owned network to be truthful.........just saying.

reply to post by Drunkenparrot


WE DON"T EVEN HAVE MANNED SPACE TRAVEL ANY MORE!

The Chinese are technically ahead of us in that regard now.