Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
XIAN, China — China would develop two large new engines, including one sized for a Moon rocket, under an apparently official plan set out by senior engineers associated with the country’s space propulsion industry. The proposed program would include re-engining the Long March 5 heavy launcher, which is still under development.
XIAN, China — Japan’s space program will employ a new idle-thrust engine mode as a standard method of safely deorbiting second stages in missions of the H-IIB launcher, following a successful first mission last year.
XIAN, China — China’s new medium-heavy space launcher, the Long March 7, should fly late next year, entering service in an initial version capable of lifting 13.5 metric tons (30,000 lb.) to low orbit, making it significantly larger than current Chinese rockets. The Long March 7 will have four boosters, says the principal engineer of manufacturer CALT, Shen Lin, adding that China is also planning new upper stages and launch vehicles, some using solid propellants and others fueled with methane.
