Hey space explorers! 🚀 This Monday afternoon at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, a commercial space company from the Chinese mainland, CAS Space, made history by successfully recovering its first suborbital research capsule, Lihong-1. It's the mainland's first parachute-assisted recovery of a commercial payload from over 100 km above Earth.
Lihong-1 climbed to about 120 km, briefly crossing the Kármán line and giving researchers over 300 seconds of microgravity. Imagine a supercharged rollercoaster—scientists got to float freely while testing experiments that can't happen on solid ground!
The mission carried a scaled-down crewed spacecraft prototype loaded with cool payloads: a 3D-printing test using lasers to see how metals crystallize in space, and rose seeds exposed to cosmic radiation for mutagenesis research. 🌹🧬 Now, back on Earth, scientists will study how microgravity and radiation reshaped these materials and seeds.
Suborbital platforms like Lihong-1 are game-changers. They offer low-cost, flexible rides to microgravity, unlocking new possibilities for space manufacturing, advanced science, and even future space tourism. CAS Space isn't stopping here—plans are already in motion to turn Lihong-1 into an orbital-class vehicle that can stay in space for over a year and fly at least ten times! 🔭
With the Chinese mainland ramping up its reusable-rocket programs, keep watching the skies. The era of commercial space research is taking off, and Lihong-1 is just the beginning! ✨
Reference(s):
China completes first commercial suborbital capsule recovery
cgtn.com
