China Just Landed Its Mysterious Reusable Spacecraft After 276 Days in Orbit
China has managed to safely land a mysterious reusable spacecraft that spent 276 days in orbit.
The uncrewed spaceship touched down on Monday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. While little is known about this craft, it’s drawing comparisons to the U.S. Air Force’s Boeing X-37B spaceplane.
“The success of the experiment marks an important breakthrough in China’s research on reusable spacecraft technologies, which will provide more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future,”
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, a major defense contractor in China, said in a statement in Xinhua, China’s official state news agency.
Secret Spacecraft
China hasn’t released any pictures of—or even a name for—its reusable spacecraft. However, a report in the South China Morning Post cites deductions from experts claiming that the craft could be used for intelligence-gathering, and that it may contain advanced sensors.
The spacecraft reportedly released an object into orbit during a mission last year. There has been speculation that the unknown object was either a satellite or a smaller craft used to observe the reusable mothership.
Competition with the X-37B?
China isn’t the only country sending mysterious reusable craft into orbit. The U.S. X-37B is boosted into space by rockets, then re-enters Earth’s atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane.
The winged X-37B carries both classified and unclassified payloads. The spacecraft can make orbital changes to thwart observers and keep its missions temporarily secret.
A flight of the X-37B in 2022—dubbed OTV-6—deployed NASA experiments that tested the effects of space on thermal control coatings, printed electronics, and radiation shielding materials. The materials spent more than three years in orbit, after which NASA scientists made use of the data collected throughout the project.
Another NASA experiment on the flight looked into the effect of long-duration space exposure on seeds. Scientists investigated the seeds’ resistance and susceptibility to space environment-unique stresses—notably, radiation. The information gathered during this experiment may eventually be used for space crop production, which could be part of future interplanetary missions and contribute to the establishment of permanently inhabited bases in space.
“The X-37B continues to push the boundaries of experimentation, enabled by an elite government and industry team behind the scenes,” Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen, DAF Rapid Capabilities Office’s X-37B Program Director, said in a news release after the conclusion of the mission:
“The ability to conduct on-orbit experiments and bring them home safely for in-depth analysis on the ground has proven valuable for the Department of the Air Force and scientific community. The addition of the service module on OTV-6 allowed us to host more experiments than ever before.”
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