The US Defense Intelligence Agency has published a rare photograph of China’s secretive reusable spaceplane in orbit, showing its open payload bay and another spacecraft attached at the rear.
The image appears in the agency’s latest “Challenges to Security in Space” report, released on October 26, 2026, offering a clearer view of a vehicle whose appearance and missions China has largely kept out of public view.
Satellite imagery company Vantor, formerly Maxar, told media outlets that its WorldView-3 satellite took the photograph on May 28, 2024, from just under 90 kilometers away.
The Chinese vehicle resembles a small space shuttle, with wings, twin tail fins and a central cargo compartment. Its overall layout is similar to the Boeing-built X-37B operated by the US Space Force.
A lower-resolution version appeared in a US Space Force presentation in South Korea in 2024. The new report identifies the vehicle as a Chinese spaceplane and provides a more detailed image.
China began orbital tests of a reusable experimental spacecraft in September 2020 with a two-day flight. A second mission lasted 276 days, while a third ended in September 2024 after 268 days in orbit.
Its fourth launch took place on February 7, 2026, aboard a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Chinese state news agency Xinhua said that mission would test reusable spacecraft technology for peaceful uses, but disclosed few details, Reuters reported.
Often referred to as Shenlong, the Chinese spacecraft launches aboard a rocket and returns to a runway. That allows equipment carried into orbit to be brought back to Earth rather than left in space or destroyed during reentry. Its precise payloads and mission objectives remain largely undisclosed.
The US has used the X-37B to test equipment and techniques during extended orbital flights. For its eighth mission, the Space Force announced experiments involving laser communications between satellites and a quantum inertial sensor designed to help spacecraft navigate without GPS.
Earlier X-37B missions tested changing orbit through aerobraking, exposed seeds to space radiation and carried an experiment investigating technology for collecting solar energy and transmitting power to Earth.
The US Defense Intelligence Agency has published a rare photograph of China’s secretive reusable spaceplane in orbit, showing its open payload bay and another spacecraft attached at the rear. The image appears in the agency’s latest “Challenges to Security in Space” report, released on October 26, 2026, offering a clearer view of a vehicle whose…