Over the weekend, China debuted a new rocket on the nation’s path to the Moon
Over the weekend, China debuted a new rocket on the nation’s path to the Moon
arstechnica.com
Over the weekend, China debuted a new rocket on the nation’s path to the Moon
Very cope heavy article. Keeps calling reusability "copying SpaceX" when one vertical launch vertical landing rocket is going to resemble another just because of physics.
I just stopped giving a fuck about who is copying whom in general. Everything is derivative, and everybody builds on prior advancements. What matters is actually making cool stuff and advancing humanity.
LM-12 is an interesting design. On paper it's pretty boring, just another disposable medium-lift kerolox rocket. But it looks pretty well-suited to economical mass production. I'm wondering if LM-12 is quietly planned to replace LM-7. It looks much simpler to assemble for launch and has almost the same capabilities.
Cheap mass produced medium lift kerolox is the way to go for most payloads until you nail down reusability. A four engine design seems like it would be hard to modify for reusability though, it'd be tough to throttle it deep enough to land empty.