China's Airspace Industry Corporation of China (AICC) and Antonov Airlines have signed a cooperation agreement to use the legendary An-225 Mriya aircraft, dubbed as the 'world's largest and heaviest cargo plane', to launch satellites.
"The initial idea and early stage of research of the An-225 started in 2009," Zhang Yousheng, AICC's president, told BBC Future. "The official contact with Antonov began in 2011, and then from 2013 to 2016 was the acceleration phase of this project."
AICC plans to place a satellite on the back of an An-225 and launch it to more than 7 miles in the air. This method, if successful, could significantly reduce launch costs, Zhang said.
"The An-225 can be equipped with spacecraft to high altitude, and can launch commercial satellites at any height below 12,000 meters," Zhang said. "Its launch time is flexible, accurate, and can quickly send the satellite into intended orbit, which greatly reduces launch costs."
However, the Chinese aerospace and defense firm does not plan to buy an existing An-225. Instead, it wants to use the concept and integrate a modern twist to fit it into the $200 billion worth satellite launch industry, as well as upgrade it with more heavy lifting capabilities that could potentially be "greater than that of the US military."
Zhang noted that the An-225 would serve as a centerpiece for its ambitious plan to add 1,000 heavy lift aircraft over the next decade.
However, Nikolay Kalashnikov, lead engineer of the An-225 project, expressed mixed feeling of the prospect of losing the program to the Chinese. "The Mriya is not separable from Ukraine, it's like our child, and it's something our children, and our grandchildren can always be proud of."
Antonov's An-225 was designed and built in Ukraine during the 1980s. It measures 84 meters long with an 88-meter wingspan, which is nearly twice the size of a traditional football field to compare. Its maximum payload capacity if around 418,000 pounds (or roughly the weight of 10 battle tanks).
If the plane does not carry a load, the An-225 Mriya could fly up to 18 hours without refueling. But it costs a staggering $30,000 per hour to operate the plane.