The test of a rocket capable of passing over the North Pole, arriving in America by a new route. A new hypersonic missile: China’s secret scares the US.
“We have no idea how they managed to carry out such a test”. The words of a source of the Financial Times questioned about the new Chinese hypersonic rocket are enough to give the measure of an unexpected, as well as worrying, progress of the Asian giant in the field of space vehicles. Why, if the goal is to go into orbit, is Chinese technology scary? As the history of the Cold War teaches us, the instruments for the conquest of space can be easily converted to a warlike use. Hence the alert from overseas intelligence.
What a hypersonic rocket is and why it’s a deadly weapon in warfare
The Chinese rocket, dubbed Long March, circled the Earth in low orbit, then missed its target by about 30 kilometers. Hypersonic rockets are five to six times faster than rockets of previous technology. This speed can be used to evade anti-missile defenses, as well as the ability of hypersonic rockets to change their course and to draw a curve, from inside to outside the Earth orbit and back inside, lower than the trajectory of ballistic missiles.
In short, we are talking about the new generation of strategic weapons. In this technological-military field, China has therefore just scored a goal.
Why the U.S. is concerned and looking to Antarctica
“We are concerned about Beijing’s military capabilities exacerbating tensions in Asia and around the world, that’s why we have called China our number one challenge,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of the Interior. “This was not a hypersonic missile, but a spacecraft. A routine test to verify reusable spacecraft technology. This is of great significance to achieve a reduction in the cost of peaceful missions in space,” were instead the words of the foreign ministry’s spokesman in Beijing.
What further increases the concerns of the world’s leading power is the possibility that, thanks to such technology, Beijing could let any ordnance pass over the South Pole. In contrast, American surveillance focuses on the Arctic. It follows that the strategic picture could be turned upside down by the People’s Republic’s hypersonic rocket.
To limit itself to the technological field, China’s progress is astounding: Beijing is in fact planning to build a spaceship as big as a city and drill the Moon to power the Earth.
Giuseppe Giordano