China tests new-generation crewed spacecraft Mengzhou

By Aamir Latif

ANKARA (AA) - China Tuesday said it has "successfully" conducted an escape flight test on its new-generation crewed spacecraft Mengzhou at zero altitude, taking an important step forward in its crewed lunar exploration program, according to state media.

This is the second time China has organized and conducted this test, 27 years after the zero-altitude escape flight test of the Shenzhou crewed spacecraft in 1998.

Early this year in April, China launched into space Shenzhou-20 mission with three astronauts.

It comes days after Beijing on Saturday "successfully" launched the Zhangheng 1-02 electromagnetic monitoring satellite into its planned orbit, Xinhua News reported.

The satellite, launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China using a Long March-2D carrier rocket, is expected to enhance the country's "space-air-ground" integrated monitoring capabilities for major natural disasters.

It is the first operational satellite dedicated to exploring the Earth's physical fields under the country's medium and long-term civil space infrastructure development plan.

With a designed lifespan of six years, the satellite is equipped with nine payloads, including an electric field detector co-developed by China and Italy, as well as a high-energy particle detector developed by Italy.

Separately, the Chinese scientists deployed a satellite that used a 2-watt laser "to push data through turbulent skies to Earth at 1Gbps, five times faster than Starlink."

This Chinese satellite has achieved "5 times Starlink speed with 2-watt laser from 36,000km orbit," the daily South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

Starlink, a division of US billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, provides internet connectivity in remote or underserved areas using a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites.