China’s suborbital space plane project gets major funding boost

The country’s biggest research funder will support civilian hypersonic flight technology designed to carry passengers between continents in just an hour

While US rival SpaceX is developing rocket-powered vehicles for high-speed travel, the Chinese system will feature winged aircraft that take off and land on a runway

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China is in a hypersonic race with US rival SpaceX, which is developing rocket-powered space vehicles. Photo: AFP/SpaceX

Published: 7:00pm, 16 Sep 2022Updated: 7:54pm, 16 Sep 2022

China’s biggest funder of scientific research said it would support the development of civilian hypersonic flight technology that can carry passengers anywhere on Earth – or to near space – within an hour.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China approved on September 7 an unspecified amount of funding for a suborbital transport project to develop the hypersonic transport system.

The system will feature winged aircraft that take off and land on a runway just like an ordinary plane, but with the ability to cruise faster than five times the speed of sound at high altitude, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), one of the project’s lead contractors.

Previously, China’s hypersonic research was mostly funded by the military. Several types of hypersonic weapons, including anti-ship missiles, have been deployed by the Chinese army and navy in recent years.

“This is the first major aerospace project approved by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,” CALT said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the contractor, the system will be able to travel between continents within an hour, giving rise to new industries such as space tourism and global high-speed transport.

China’s suborbital plane, shown here in an artist’s illustration, will be powered by an air-breathing engine, making it more efficient than rocket-driven rivals, according to a project contractor. Photo: Weibo

The project positions China in a hypersonic race with the United States. “In recent years, long-distance high-speed transport has become a new research hotspot in the aerospace field,” project lead scientist Song Zhengyu said in the statement.