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China's top-secret spaceplane can't hide in low-Earth orbit
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- DeepHorus
A high-resolution image has revealed a Chinese winged spaceplane in low-Earth orbit, showing a design closely resembling the US Space Force’s X-37B. The photograph was taken in 2024 by a commercial imaging satellite owned by Vantor, formerly Maxar. The Pentagon released the full-resolution image on Monday in an unclassified Defense Intelligence Agency assessment of space threats.
The spacecraft displays delta wings, payload bay doors, a dark heat shield, and a rear-mounted service module with solar arrays. Those features make the Chinese vehicle appear, to a significant degree, a copy of the X-37B. Vantor is among several companies supplying reconnaissance imagery to the US military and intelligence agencies, and its Earth-imaging satellites can also point telescopes at objects in space.
A US Space Force official disclosed Maxar’s observation at a 2024 conference in South Korea. The Pentagon, however, did not release the full-resolution image to the public until Monday. Lower-resolution views showing the Chinese spaceplane’s general shape had been publicly available before the DIA assessment.
China has launched four spaceplane missions since 2020, with durations of up to nine months. The fourth mission is in orbit today after launching in February. It is not publicly known whether China maintains one or more such spaceplanes in its inventory.
The DIA report does not reveal much new about what the Chinese spaceplane does in orbit. Its missions remain largely opaque, despite the clear visual evidence of its design. The Space Force operates two X-37Bs in rotation, and the longest of their eight missions lasted two-and-a-half years.
US officials have released photos of the X-37B, published design and dimension information, and disclosed a handful of experiments. Most X-37B activities in space remain classified. The new image underscores how commercial satellites are expanding public and military visibility into low-Earth orbit.
