Chinese (CASIC) Tengfei-1 space shuttle project

Hi,

It seems we did not have a thread on Tengfei-1 (腾飞一号) yet. Now fixed.

Tengfei-1 (腾飞一号) is CASIC's two-stage HTHL reusable spaceplane project initially claimed to aim at space tourism operations as early as 2030. Early for that type of vehicle using combined cycle airbreathing propulsion…

So… On September 26th, 2018, media reports started circulating a story saying, through project leader Zhou Hong, that Tengfei-1 had recently completed a test flight. A video was also aired, with lots of CGI material.

Tengfei-1 (腾飞一号) stands for 'rapid rise' or 'blast off' number one.

There still is some confusion on my side on what was exactly tested. The test article could have been anything. But it's a starting point.

Some sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttYHG2H7D0

https://gbtimes.com/chinese-contractor-claims-progress-on-reusable-spaceplane

https://phuketnews.easybranches.com/china/651718

https://www.xuehua.us/2018/09/29/%E8%B6%85%E8%B6%8A%E7%BE%8E%E5%9B%BD%E8%88%AA%E5%A4%A9%E9%A3%9E%E6%9C%BA%EF%BC%8C%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E8%85%BE%E9%A3%9E%E4%B8%80%E5%8F%B7%E8%AF%95%E9%A3%9E%E6%88%90%E5%8A%9F%EF%BC%8C/

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/45561618

etc.

A.

Hi,

This project might be connected, one way or another, to another TSTO CASIC project called "Teng Yun" -- for which I opened a thread back in 2016, after it was publicly discussed at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress (IAC)

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,27924.0.html

In case both projects are the same, I'll ask them to be merged.

Meanwhile, feel free to comment on this…

But for the time being, let's keep rolling 2 separate threads.

A.

PS) As I don't speak Chinese, cross-checking info takes some additional time.