US Intelligence Releases Image of China's Secretive Spaceplane in Orbit
The US Defense Intelligence Agency has publicly released a full-resolution photo of China's reusable spaceplane, which closely resembles the US X-37B. A commercial satellite captured the image in orbit in 2024.
The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on Monday released a full-resolution photograph of a Chinese spaceplane in orbit. The image was taken in 2024 by an Earth-imaging satellite belonging to the American company Vantor, which was then known as Maxar. It appears in an unclassified DIA assessment of threats to the United States in space and shows a vehicle whose design largely mirrors the X-37B, the uncrewed spaceplane operated by the US Space Force.
What the image shows
The Chinese vehicle has delta wings, payload bay doors, a dark heat shield and a rear-mounted service module with solar arrays. Lower-resolution views showing its general shape had been public before. A US Space Force official disclosed the Maxar observation at a 2024 conference in South Korea.
What is known about the missions
Since 2020, China has flown four spaceplane missions, lasting up to nine months. The fourth launched in February and remains in orbit. It is unknown how many such vehicles China has. Like the X-37B, it is launched inside a rocket's payload shroud, operates as a satellite in orbit and lands autonomously on a runway at the end of a mission, after which it is refurbished for another flight.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who catalogs spaceflight activity, concluded from open-source tracking data that the current vehicle released a sub-satellite in June and recaptured it in July, then repeated the sequence in August and September. Chinese state media call the craft a reusable experimental spacecraft.
Wider security context
The DIA report says China has multiple ground-based laser weapons able to disrupt or damage satellites in low-Earth orbit, and that by the late 2020s it may field space-based directed-energy systems. The report also cites Chinese tests of anti-satellite missiles and last year's satellite refueling demonstration in geosynchronous orbit. US officials also pointed to Russian activity, including small satellites that approached an ICEYE satellite providing imagery to Ukraine.
