China’s AVIC has secured a contract from the China Manned Space Agency to develop a winged, reusable spacecraft called Haolong.
The reusable spacecraft is ostensibly intended to carry cargo to China’s Tiangong space station, according to the China Daily newspaper, citing AVIC general manager Zhang Jichao, speaking at China’s Zhuhai air show.
Similar to the Boeing X-37B, the spacecraft will be launched aboard a rocket. After delivering cargo to the space station, it will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and glide to a runway, where it will deploy landing gear.
China has conducted spaceplane work for several years, with three known flights of an experimental spaceplane. This includes a 267-day mission that ended in September 2024.
Haolong is envisaged as reducing the costs involved in resupplying Tiangong. Moreover, it will be able to carry cargo back to Earth, something China’s current methods of resupplying the space station are unable to do at present.
The vehicle is also expected to reduce the planning times for resupply missions.
The company has a model on display at the Zhuhai show. When in space, Haolong opens two doors, exposing solar panels to provide electricity.
The company is displaying a model of the craft at Zhuhai, and the People’s Daily posted a video of its operations on social media.
No timeline is given for the vehicle’s first flight, or how many will be produced. Global Times quotes the spaceplane’s chief designer, Fang Yuanpeng, as saying that the vehicle has entered the engineering development phase.
While China is playing up the resupply mission of Haolong, the system has clear military applications.
In its 2023 report to Congress, the US Department of Defense stated that China is actively militarising space.
“The [People’s Republic of China] continues to develop counterspace capabilities – including direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles, co-orbital satellites, electronic warfare, and directed-energy systems – that can contest or deny an adversary’s access to and operations in the space domain,” it said.
Reusable spacecraft can be used to rapidly launch payloads such as satellites into orbit and can be equipped to conduct surveillance missions.
They can also inspect or interfere with existing satellites, including using electronic warfare to jam the transmissions from communications and navigation satellites.
In addition, Beijing could deploy weapons in the spacecraft’s payload bay.
