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Top secret China spaceplane releases a mystery object into Earth's orbit - and no one knows what it is
China’s top-secret spaceplane has released a mysterious object into Earth’s orbit just 372 miles above the surface.
The US Space Force is monitoring the situation, but the purpose of the object ejected on May 24 is unknown.
A Harvard astrophysicist first spotted the object, speculating it could be a subsatellite deployment, or a piece of hardware ejected before the spaceplane ends its mission and deorbits.
The craft - named Shenlong after a spirit dragon from Chinese mythology - launched last December and has since been found to release several objects into orbit with some sending strong signals over North America.
China ’s top-secret spaceplane has released a mysterious object into Earth’s orbit just 372 miles above the surface. The US Space Force is monitoring the situation, but the purpose of the object ejected on May 24 is unknown
China has been very secretive about the spaceplane, only describing the purpose as providing 'technical support for the peaceful use of space.’
The craft launched one day after the US scrubbed the flight of its ‘spy’ plane, which the US Space Force chief said was 'no coincidence.'
'It's probably no coincidence that they're trying to match us in timing and sequence of this,' General Chance Saltzman, Space Force's Chief of Space Operations, said.
And while China’s spaceplane has since fallen under the radar, the mysterious object is raising concerns.
Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, first spotted the object and shared his findings on X.
‘This object could be a subsatellite deployment, or it could be a piece of hardware ejected prior to end of the mission and deorbit (the spaceplane's first flight did something similar),’ McDowell shared.
‘Will be interesting to see if the plane maneuvers or lands soon.’
China’s spaceplane is currently on its third mission, and US officials have said that its capabilities are somewhat similar to America's X-37B (pictured) that launched on December 29, 2023
Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley was tracking China’s spaceplane in December when it ejected six objects, which emitted signals over North America.
Tilley said he believed the signals targeted a ground station or boat near British Columbia, Canada, where he lives.
'When the spaceplane passes over me, it only emits on a certain trajectory of pass that appears to favor a location south to southwest of me.
'I.e., on higher elevation passes over me, there are no signals, but on ocean-hugging passes to my southwest, all of my observations of the object have occurred.'
Tilley has teamed up with a group in Switzerland that specializes in optical-band space surveillance, and the collaboration has been keeping a close eye on the plane since it launched on December 15.
China’s spaceplane is currently on its third mission, and US officials have said that its capabilities are somewhat similar to America's X-37B that launched on December 29, 2023.
The launch followed more than two weeks of false starts and delays attributed to poor weather and unspecified technical issues, leading ground crews to roll the spacecraft back to its hangar.
It came two weeks after China's spaceplane launched on its third mission to orbit since 2020.
The US Boeing-built vehicle, roughly the size of a small bus and resembling a miniature space shuttle, is built to deploy various payloads and conduct technology experiments on years-long orbital flights.
The planned duration of the latest X-37B mission was not made public, but it will presumably run until June 2026 or later, given the prevailing pattern of successively longer flights.