China is now one of the precious few countries that knows how to refuel satellites in space. The nation's Tianyuan-1 system (launched aboard the Long March 7) has successfully topped up at least one satellite in orbit. Officials aren't describing the process beyond likening it to that for airplanes, but the result is clear: the refueling should help satellites stay in orbit for longer, or make adjustments that would otherwise be impractical.
Refuelling systems could become a non-event in a few years thanks to robotic spacecraft. However, there's a strong incentive to get this technology into space as quickly as possible. If you can keep a satellite in orbit for even a year or two longer, you can save massive amounts of money by reducing the number of vehicles you need to deploy. The move could also help with the fight against space junk by slowing the proliferation of dead or useless satellites. The ultimate goal is to completely avoid fuel in the first place, but efforts like China's represent an important first step.
China successfully launched a new rocket and a prototype next-generation crew capsule Saturday (June 25) in the first-ever liftoff from the nation's new launch center.The Long March 7 rocket — which China developed in part to help build and service a crewed space station that the nation plans to have up and running by the early 2020s — blasted off on its maiden flight from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 8 a.m. EDT Saturday (1200 GMT; 8 p.m. local time), Chinese officials said.
The prototype capsule made a parachute-aided touchdown and
was successfully recovered in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on
Sunday (June 26), according to Chinese media reports.
The powerful Long March 7 stands 174 feet (53 meters) tall
and weighs 658 tons (597 metric tons) at liftoff, according to the Chinese
MannedSpace Engineering (CMSE) office."It is capable of sending 13.5 tons of payloads to low
Earth orbit. Using new equipment such as the LOX/Kerosene engine, Long March 7
is a pollution-free launch vehicle and will boost China's space
capabilities," CMSE officials wrote in an update after Saturday's launch.
The Long March 7 fired its engines for a little over 10
minutes on its maiden flight, entering an elliptical orbit that gets as close
as 124 miles (200 kilometers) to Earth, and as far away as 245 miles (394 km),
CMSE officials added. (For comparison, the International Space Station circles
the planet at an average altitude of about 250 miles, or 400 km.)The Long March 7 should end up playing a large role in the
construction of a 60-ton space station that China wants to be operational by
2022, Chinese officials have said.
"The first mission of Long March 7 achieved the planned
goal and opened a new chapter in China's space lab project. Its success laid a
solid foundation for the project's upcoming missions," CMSE officials
wrote in the update.
