{"id":741596,"date":"2026-07-03T21:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T21:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741596\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T21:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T21:27:09","slug":"chinas-satellite-engine-smashes-record-leaves-us-rival-far-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741596\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s satellite engine smashes record, leaves US rival far behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

China has tested a satellite engine<\/a> with a record-breaking operating life, a key technology that could help propel the world\u2019s largest communications, military and deep-space spacecraft into their intended orbits faster and more reliably.<\/p>\n

The upgraded engine, developed by the China Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology in Xian, can produce 750 newtons of thrust, according to Chinese media reports.<\/p>\n

The Chinese engine fired for 11,617 seconds \u2013 3.2 hours \u2013 across five orbit-raising manoeuvres during its maiden flight in late June, placing Communications Technology Experiment Satellite 26A into orbit about 35,800km (22,000 miles) above Earth.<\/a><\/p>\n

The engine, which was designed to run for nearly 10 hours, operated continuously for more than 14 hours during testing, thanks to a novel heat- and oxidation-resistant coating, the reports said.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the leading engines currently used to raise spacecraft into their final orbit after launch, including the US-made R-42DM and Europe\u2019s Leros-1B, are typically designed to operate for about seven hours.<\/p>\n

The race for the moon\u2019s south pole: can China beat Nasa\u2019s 2028 deadline?<\/p>\n

The extra operating time did not come at the expense of performance, according to the reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has tested a satellite engine with a record-breaking operating life, a key technology that could help propel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[144,318677,318679,318674,318681,318675,1076,3471,318676,79,21,318680,318678,6811],"class_list":["post-741596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-china","tag-china-academy-of-aerospace-propulsion-technology","tag-china-space-news","tag-chinasat-a","tag-communications-technology-experiment-satellite","tag-dong-fang-hong-communications-satellite","tag-europe","tag-japan","tag-r-dm","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-west-germany","tag-workers-daily","tag-xian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}