China Nails Pad Abort Test for Next-Gen Taikonaut Capsule
The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced a successful test of its pad-abort system for the in-development Mengzhou spacecraft this week. This represents an important step in China's plans to send taikonauts to the Moon's surface sometime in the next few years, though there are still many steps between this and an eventual lunar mission.
Like the USA and several other countries, China has expressed a growing interest in a manned mission to the Moon in the coming years, in what would be the first human feet to touch down on the celestial body in over five decades. This 21st-century space race could be important for setting the tone of the industrialization of space and future missions to Mars and beyond.
That's a long way off for now, with China still developing the Long March 10 rocket and the Lanyue lunar lander, both of which would be integral parts of any future lunar missions. In the near term, though, the CMSEO is working on the safety features of its Mengzhou spacecraft, which would carry future taikonauts into low Earth orbit and beyond.
On June 17, the Mengzhou successfully fired its solid rocket escape engines from the launch pad, firing the craft up and away from the launch facility, before triggering three descent parachutes. The craft then safely touched down a few minutes later using self-deployed air cushions.
The CMSEO claimed the test was a "complete success," as per Space.com—although in the video above, you can see the craft tip over after landing, which probably wasn't intended. Still, this test shows the functionality of the safety system that would kick in should any future launches of manned missions encounter dangerous conditions on the launchpad, where the lives of the taikonauts are in danger. If such an event occurred, the safety system would kick in and tear the manned capsule from the rocket assembly, launching it far from the rocket and allowing the crew to return safely to Earth, regardless of what happens to the rest of the spacecraft.
This puts CMSEO one step closer to its lunar missions goals, even if those are still a long way off. The next step will likely be a test in-flight, or at least at altitude, confirming that the abort system can still function at higher atmospheric pressures and speeds.
NASA is also pushing for manned Moon missions in the next decade, but doubts have been raised over the plans since the Trump administration is recommending budgets that would push for the cancellation of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, which was designed to carry next-generation astronauts to the Moon. That puts into doubt the Artemis 3 mission, which is currently slated for 2027.
Perhaps new spacecraft fees could help bolster budgets enough to compensate.
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