Cosmic Penguin

And here's the proof that I have waited for months of this elusive, no out-of-thin-air mission that can finally almost conclusively prove its existence.https://twitter.com/LaunchStuff/status/1301494799489531908 …

The only official thing the Chinese has said was way back in March, where a LM-2F was mentioned delivered to Jiuquan. However rumors of such a mission actually popped up briefly on a Chinese forum way back last November Of course this official article got deleted...

Quote from the article: "This CZ-2F mission is the first major scientific research and experimental mission other than HSF 3 years after the "Shenzhou 11". It is the basis for the successful implementation of subsequent HSF projects and is a key to future aerospace technology."

This really sounds like a prototype spaceplane, isn't it? It really sounds like how the respective developers describe @SierraNevCorp Dreamchaser. Or @esa on @esa_SpaceRider. We don't know if it's the Shenlong - some say it's another project by CASC called "Aotian", per rumors.

The launch has been awaited for months. A tracking ship went into the S Atlantic back in April, waited for a month before heading back, apparently without tracking anything. Then last month YW-6 pushed through back to its position east of Argentina, w/ YW-3 in the Arabic Sea too.

What will happen tomorrow? Will the Chinese simply launch it, land it and never said a thing? Or will they boast it as they got something with real wings (sorry lifting bodies...), the 3rd nation to do so to space? Or...? No-one knows. Ah the suspense!

Per one usually reliable insider source the T-0 will be 05:28 UTC. And there's a journal paper (%) on rocket terminal guidance control methods that mentions one of such methods to be tested on the "CZ-2F/T3" mission (T1/2 being for the TG-1/2 launches). This is likely it.

(%) Song Zhengyu, Pan Hao, Wang Cong, Gong Qinghai. Development of Flight Control Technology of Long March Launch Vehicles. Journal of Astronautics, 2020, 41 (7), 868-878. doi: 10.3873/j.issn.1000-1328.2020.07.005

It's definitely interesting to see how this mission plays out. IF this is really a spaceplane a la X-37B (or who knows, BOR/Hermes/Dreamchaser), or even a lifting body a la IXV/@esa_SpaceRider, looking at the tracking ships' positions a single orbit mission might be possible.

On the other hand the Chinese might use it to the maximum extent and fly a multi-month mission a la the 1st X-37B a decade ago. Whatever mission profile they choose, the Chinese will probably get more hypersonic flight data from this (well they played w/ such things for years).

Just to make it clear, the photos below are Photoshopped - though they do show what the launch config. might be, the 4.2 m dia. fairing for Tiangong probably too small for something requiring a LM-2F. Or maybe it will fly in the open a la Hermes... https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1301505513113481217 …