Sure, just like an ICBM is a ‘spacecraft’. They both go in space, right??
China’s recent test-launch of a hypersonic missile caught American intel completely off-guard.
The missile was launched in August, flying into a low-earth orbit before re-entering the atmosphere and coming to within a short distance of it’s intended target. And US intelligence was unaware (that we know of) about the test or even the weapon itself, until the test.
A tiny bit of good news is that the missile apparently missed it’s target by a little over 20 miles, but that’s not much good news, seeing as how a.) it had already circled the earth by that point, so 20 miles out of 24,000 isn’t far off, and b.) it was still just a test – they’ll fix the tracking and guidance issues.
It’s a lot more concerning that US intel apparently didn’t know how far along the Chinese were in their development, which some have described as a ‘Pearl Harbor moment’.
Hypersonic missiles are designed to move at around 5 times the speed of sound, and once the re-enter the atmosphere they still maintain power and guidance, making them more like a cruise missile than an ICBM, and allowing them to bypass and evade missile defense systems.
And after all this, the Chinese described the missile as a ‘re-usable’ spacecraft – that acted a LOT like a missile. And given the Chinese government’s strained history with the truth, this should be taken with a giant grain of salt.
