{"id":3838,"date":"2025-09-06T16:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T16:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/3838\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T16:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T16:34:15","slug":"china-pulled-off-high-orbit-refuelling-and-may-beat-us-to-moon-ex-space-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/3838\/","title":{"rendered":"China pulled off high-orbit refuelling and may beat US to moon, ex-space officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"

China appears to have pulled off not only the first satellite-to-satellite refuelling<\/a> in geosynchronous orbit, but also the \u201clargest single manoeuvre\u201d ever seen in that orbit, according to a former US Space Command official.<\/p>\n

The two spacecraft \u2013 the Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 \u2013 have been docked some 36,000km (22,370 miles) above Earth since early July. Their mysterious mission was widely believed to involve the Shijian-25 supplying the Shijian-21 with propellant.<\/p>\n

Last month, they executed what Lieutenant General John Shaw called \u201cthe largest single manoeuvre ever conducted in geosynchronous orbit\u201d, shifting their track with a velocity change of more than 330 metres (1,083 feet) per second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s actually a lot, at least by today\u2019s standards,\u201d Shaw, a former deputy commander of the US Space Command, told senators at a hearing in Washington on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Observers said the manoeuvres would have burned the equivalent of six years\u2019 worth of station-keeping fuel \u2013 the amount needed to keep a satellite steady in such a high orbit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

01:57<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Chang\u2019e-6 mission returns to Earth with first samples from moon\u2019s far side<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Chang\u2019e-6 mission returns to Earth with first samples from moon\u2019s far side<\/p>\n

At the same hearing \u2013 titled \u201cThere\u2019s a Bad Moon on the Rise: Why Congress and Nasa Must Thwart China in the Space Race\u201d \u2013 former Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine became one of the few senior officials to openly say that the US will probably lose the race against China to land astronauts on the moon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China appears to have pulled off not only the first satellite-to-satellite refuelling in geosynchronous orbit, but also the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4561,4566,2102,114,4558,4564,61,60,4560,4567,4565,91,82,4563,4562,4559,247,4557],"class_list":{"0":"post-3838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-artemis-lunar-exploration-programme","9":"tag-beidou-navigation-satellite","10":"tag-beijing","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-congress","13":"tag-donald-trump-administration","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jim-bridenstine","17":"tag-jim-shell","18":"tag-john-shaw","19":"tag-nasa","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-senator-ted-cruz","22":"tag-shijian-21","23":"tag-shijian-25","24":"tag-space","25":"tag-us-space-command"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}