Chang Cheng 1<br /> <br />Chang Cheng 1<br />Chang Cheng 1<br />Credit: © Mark Wade<br />Class: Manned. Type: Spaceplane. Nation: China. Manufacturer: SAST.<br /><br />The Chang Cheng 1 (Great Wall 1) vertical takeoff / horizontal landing two-stage space shuttle was a compromise design created jointly by Shanghai Astronautics Bureau 805 (now the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology) and Institute 604 of the Air Ministry in 1988. An expendable booster, consisting of three of Shanghai's planned liquid oxygen/kerosene modular boosters, would boost the winged second stage shuttle to a high altitude. The engines of the winged shuttle stage would take it to orbit. This approach would allow a first flight to be made in 2008.<br /><br />Each of the modular booster stages designed by Shanghai were 4.5 m in diameter and 29 m long, with a mass of 330 tonnes. The shuttle had a wingspan of 17 m, a length of 24 m, and a 4.5 m fuselage diameter. It was essentially a 2/3 scale version of the American shuttle, with half the wing area and launch mass. It is probable that the spacecraft used the same propulsion systems as the upper stage of the Shanghai upper stage expendable system. This would mean the upper stage was around 57 tonnes in mass, with just over half of that being propellant, yielding a net payload to orbit of 6 tonnes plus a crew of two.<br /><br />China began preliminary work on advanced manned spaceflight in July 1985. The decision came against a background of vigorous international space activity. The United States had its Strategic Defence Initiative and Space Station Freedom. The Soviet Union had its Buran shuttle system, Mir and Mir-2 space stations, and its own star wars program. Europe was developing the Hermes manned spaceplane, and Japan the Hope winged spacecraft. Even India and China were taking on ambitious space projects. It seemed China would have to take action to remain a world power.<br /><br />Ren Xin Min, the leading Chinese rocketry expert of the time, bel