Chinese university launches reusable rocket

  Jiageng-I rocket [Photo from Official Weibo account of Xiamen University]

China's Xiamen University launched and recovered its first rocket Tuesday, in northwest China's desert.

The Jiageng-I rocket, jointly developed by Xiamen University and Beijing-based company Space Transportation, has a total length of 8.7 meters, a wingspan of 2.5 meters and a take-off mass of 3,700 kg.

The reusable rocket traveled at a maximum altitude of 26.2 km and was recovered at the designated landing site.

The joint flight was to test the performance of the dual waverider forebody configuration designed by the university's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and to verify the rocket recovery and reuse technology.

The dual waverider forebody configuration, an aerodynamic system for hypersonic airplanes, is installed at the nosecone of the rocket to test its performance in real flight conditions.

The test was part of the university's project to try to quintuple the current speed of civil aircraft to achieve global direct access within two hours.

The flight is "an important milestone towards the ultimate goal of the project," said the university's official WeChat account.

Located in east China's Fujian Province, Xiamen University is one of the earliest Chinese universities to conduct aviation studies.

Space Transportation Co. is a launcher manufacturer aiming to develop reusable rockets for small payloads and provide low-cost and reliable space transportation services for its clients.