The proposed People’s Republic of China (PRC) Shenlong (Divine Dragon) autonomous spaceplane in … [+]
China’s most secretive but not quite hidden spacecraft is shattering the country’s previous known record for flight of an uncrewed spaceplane.
The “reusable test space vehicle” was launched from the Jiuquan Launch Center in the Gobi Desert atop a Long March 2F rocket on August 4.
The size of the rocket fairing as well as amateur sightings and tracking by the US Space Force all point to a vehicle similar to the American X-37B built by Boeing but smaller.
The X-37B has been flying for more than a decade on secret missions. It has flown missions that saw the craft spend over two years in continuous flight above Earth. In fact, it’s currently above us right now on a mission that’s already lasted over 800 days.
This appears to be the second flight of China’s answer to the X-37B. It’s believed to have flown for the first time in 2020, when it stayed aloft for two days. As of Monday, whatever craft launched Aug. 4 has now been in orbit for 18 days, as far as anyone outside the Chinese military and space program knows.
Just as with the 2020 spaceplane mission, it appears that at least one smaller satellite was also released alongside the spaceplane, according to SpaceNews.
Satellite photos appeared to show that the landing site thought to have been used by the 2020 flight was being prepared again, but no landings have been reported just yet.
It’s possible the craft managed to land somewhere already undetected or unreported by orbit watchers, but that seems unlikely given that the US Space Force has surely been keeping a close eye on its progress and even amateurs with backyard cameras have been able to locate it.
