China has tested revolutionary technology in space, successfully performing an in-orbit refueling operation for a BeiDou navigation satellite moving in high…
Congratulations to the China Spaceflight program that accomplished this. Its a good milestone.
For those that have seen other headlines about on-orbit refueling, what happened in this article isn’t what those are talking about. Those other articles are talking about in-space transferring of cryogenic fuels such as liquid hydrogen, liquid methane, and liquid oxygen.
What was accomplished with the Beidou satellite is the easier-to-transfer hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide fuel :
“It is reported that during the successful test, a special service vehicle approached the BeiDou satellite and transferred liquid fuel. Experts explain that the experiment used a long-term chemical fuel type that does not require complex cooling systems and can be stored for years.”
In-space transferring of this fuel is a fairly regular occurrence for a couple of decades now. The International Space Space Station has a small thruster that runs on this same family of fuel. It is regularly refueled by visiting Russian spacecraft.
Congratulations to the China Spaceflight program that accomplished this. Its a good milestone.
For those that have seen other headlines about on-orbit refueling, what happened in this article isn’t what those are talking about. Those other articles are talking about in-space transferring of cryogenic fuels such as liquid hydrogen, liquid methane, and liquid oxygen.
What was accomplished with the Beidou satellite is the easier-to-transfer hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide fuel :
“It is reported that during the successful test, a special service vehicle approached the BeiDou satellite and transferred liquid fuel. Experts explain that the experiment used a long-term chemical fuel type that does not require complex cooling systems and can be stored for years.”
In-space transferring of this fuel is a fairly regular occurrence for a couple of decades now. The International Space Space Station has a small thruster that runs on this same family of fuel. It is regularly refueled by visiting Russian spacecraft.