SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket ushered in a new era, offering a fully reusable launch platform that brought outer space closer than ever by dramatically lowering the costs of sending payloads \u2014 and eventually astronauts \u2014 into orbit.<\/p>\n
Now Elon Musk\u2019s space corporation has even more to prove when it comes to its Starship, a gargantuan super heavy lift rocket and booster duo that\u2019s still deep in the development phase<\/a>. Following over a dozen major explosions<\/a>, the rocket has yet to safely launch and return to the ground in one piece.<\/p>\n That hasn\u2019t dissuaded a growing number of Chinese companies from unabashedly ripping off the concept, as Ars Technica reports<\/a>. Most recently, state-operated news outlet China.com detailed<\/a> acompany called \u201cBeijing Leading Rocket Technology\u201d that named its latest vehicle concept Xingzhou-1 \u2014 which translates to \u201cStarship-1\u201d or \u201cStarvessel-1.\u201d A render of the rocket closely resembles SpaceX\u2019s design as well, from the overall proportions down to the grid fins designed to guide the Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft back down to the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cVery early stage, only conceptual claims, very ambitiously aiming for 2027 debut fight,\u201d journalist Andrew Jones tweeted<\/a>. \u201cWild.\u201d<\/p>\n Several other Chinese startups have similarly proposed rocket designs that rip off SpaceX\u2019s Starship, from Cosmoleap, which painstakingly recreated the concept<\/a> down to a render of a Super Heavy booster-like rocket being caught by a launch tower by two extremely familiar-looking<\/a> \u201cchopstick\u201d arms. A separate firm, called Astronstone, also said it was looking to recreate<\/a> the concept, \u201cfully aligning its technical approach with Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX,\u201d albeit at a smaller scale.<\/p>\n Even a heavy lift rocket China\u2019s national space officials showed off a year ago<\/a> bore a striking resemblance to Starship, from a \u201ctwo-stage, fully reusable configuration\u201d right down to\u00a0the aerodynamic flaps<\/a>.<\/p>\n But when it comes to turning flashy renders into reality, China still has plenty of catching up to do when it comes to reusable rocketry on the whole. Case in point, earlier this month, private Chinese space company LandScape attempted to launch and land its reusable and Falcon 9-like Zhuque-3 rocket booster, only for it to explode during its first orbital test<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even SpaceX itself is struggling<\/a> to turn its mammoth Starship into a reliable platform that can send up to 150 metric tons to space in a single launch \u2014 which isn\u2019t exactly surprising, given the project\u2019s unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n Where that leaves far smaller Chinese companies vying for investor attention to cash in on Musk\u2019s Moonshot idea remains unclear at best.<\/p>\n For one, even SpaceX has plenty to prove before it can assist NASA<\/a> during its upcoming planned attempt<\/a> to land the first astronauts on the lunar surface in over 50 years. The space agency is getting antsy<\/a>, with NASA\u2019s interim administrator Sean Duffy telling Fox News<\/a> earlier this year that it\u2019s looking for alternatives, arguing that SpaceX is \u201cbehind schedule\u201d for the mission, which is tentatively scheduled for 2027.<\/p>\n In the meantime, users on the SpaceXLounge subreddit are less than convinced China will beat SpaceX to the punch when it comes to Starship.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil they make a reliable and working full-flow engine, all these copy efforts won\u2019t be worth diddly squat,\u201d one Reddit user wrote<\/a>. \u201cBut will look neat and sometimes explode with a lot of fireworks!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wish they would mimic our free speech like they mimic our technology,\u201d another user added<\/a> facetiously.<\/p>\n