Claims China’s BeiDou satellite was refuelled in orbit could change space race

Advertisement Claims China’s BeiDou satellite was refuelled in orbit could change space race Research papers suggest the historic operation occurred in February last year, a manoeuvre that could have military implications 3-MIN READ3-MIN Ling Xinin Ohio Chinese researchers appear to have revealed a previously unknown satellite-to-satellite refuelling operation in high Earth orbit, putting the country at the forefront of a technology that could reshape the space race. In a paper undergoing peer review for the Journal of Deep Space Exploration, the team said China had “successfully provided room-temperature propellant refuelling for a high-orbit BeiDou satellite for the first time”. The researchers from the state-funded Deep Space Exploration Laboratory gave no details about the operation. They said it had given China valuable experience but emphasised the need to develop technologies for transferring extremely low-temperature propellants, which offered better performance for large spacecraft and deep-space missions. Select Voice Select Speed 1x AI-generated voice