A super secretive spaceplane from China has been captured clearly on camera for the first time but very few people seem to know exactly what it's doing there.
Our ability to explore above the Earth has massively expanded in recent years thanks to the huge improvements in technology, as well as billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos joining the space business.
In a world where Katy Perry has been in space, seeing a Chinese vehicle up there doesn't seem all that surprising, except that it's been there for six years, avoiding the cameras better than Taylor Swift, although unlikely the world's biggest pop star, we don't understand what it's doing there.
A US intelligence report has now given us our first look at the spacecraft, which is known as the 'divine dragon' has previously been glimpsed releasing 'mysterious objects' into Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).
The report from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) has given us our first high-definition image of the 'Shenlong' after it was captured by Maxar Technologies, now Vantor, in 2024.
Just to make things even more mysterious though, the report doesn't really give us insight into what the plane is doing and what objects it is dropping, instead pretending that it is perfectly normal to spot this extremely elusive spacecraft.
The image that was captured back in 2024 (Vantor/X)
Vantor, in an update on X, said: "The report documents China’s expanding presence in space, including reusable space systems, and features Vantor’s WorldView Space imagery of a Chinese spaceplane in orbit in 2024."
The report itself states: "China has developed and will continue to advance weapons for use against satellites in orbit to disrupt, damage, and destroy other nations’ space capabilities.
"China continues to research, develop, test, and deploy multiple types of counter-space weapons, including ground-based ASAT missile systems capable of destroying satellites."
The DIA does warn that China's 'rapidly expanding space program' is second only to America's own, and also rather ominously warned that China sees space as a 'strategic priority for military dominance'.
One thing the image did reveal is that the plane is nearly identical to America's own robotic spacecraft – the US X–37.
It is said to be nearly identical in dimension to the US's own version (DoD/Corbis via Getty Images)
It has flown seven missions since making its debut back in 2010 and has spent around 2000 days in space since then, often conducting super secret missions that only the Department of Defence's top dogs can know about.
Professor Jonathan McDowell, a satellite tracking expert from Durham University Space Research Centre, told the Daily Mail: "The Chinese spaceplane is very similar to the X–37B, with a payload bay in the middle and a jettisonable service module with solar arrays at the back.
"The wings are slightly different, but the overall layout, down to the tilted rear fins, says to me that some important official in China went to the space folks with a picture of the X–37B and said, 'build me one of these'."
So, while we're still a little lost about what objects the Chinese space experts are releasing into the LEO, this new image of their spacecraft might give us a little more insight into exactly what it's doing in space.
