China has launched its top-secret military spaceplane for a third time, days after the US military’s winged spacecraft was grounded for several weeks due to problems with its SpaceX rocket.
Observers believe China’s spaceplane looks much like the US military’s X-37B, a reusable craft that Pentagon officials are similarly tight-lipped about. But there’s a distinction in that US officials will publicly discuss, at least in broad terms, the purpose of the X-37B and release images of the spacecraft.
The US military has two X-37Bs in its inventory, each with a cargo bay that could fit a large refrigerator. They resemble small space shuttles, with dimensions about one-quarter those of NASA’s retired shuttle orbiters. The X-37B spaceplanes have flown in space six times, logging missions as long as two-and-a-half years, thanks to deployable solar panels that generate power for greater endurance.
The seventh X-37B flight was supposed to launch this week from Florida, but officials called off the launch to resolve technical issues with its Falcon Heavy rocket.
Then, on Thursday, China sent its own spaceplane aloft on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China. The Long March 2F is typically used to launch Chinese astronaut crews into orbit but has been modified to accommodate China’s unpiloted robotic spaceplane inside its payload fairing.
An even plane
There’s no suggestion that the US and Chinese spaceplanes are spying on one another because their orbits do not bring them close together. However, the supposed similarities between the US and Chinese military spaceplanes are hard to ignore.
“It’s no surprise that the Chinese are extremely interested in our spaceplane, and we’re extremely interested in theirs,” said Gen. Chance Saltzman, the US Space Force’s senior officer serving as the military’s chief of Space Operations. “The ability to put something into orbit, do some things, and bring it home and take a look at the results is powerful.
“These are the two of the most watched objects on orbit while they’re on orbit,” Saltzman said Wednesday in response to a question from Ars at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida.
“It’s probably no coincidence that they’re trying to match us in timing and sequence of this,” he added.
In a brief statement, China’s top state-owned space industry contractor, CASC, referred to the payload on Thursday’s super-secret rocket launch as a “reusable test spacecraft.” China hasn’t published any photos.
“The test spacecraft will operate in orbit for a period of time and then return to a scheduled landing site in China,” CASC said. “During this period, reusable technology verification and space science experiments will be carried out as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space.”
Despite describing the spaceplane as a vehicle for peaceful use, Chinese officials closely guard details about it. In all likelihood, the spaceplane is actually carrying out a military mission, perhaps testing new space technology for use in various military applications like surveillance, propulsion, or communication.
This is the third flight of China’s spaceplane, following a 2020 mission that lasted two days and the longer 276-day mission that ended in May. On both missions, China’s winged spacecraft released a small object in orbit, perhaps to shadow the spaceplane and test rendezvous, proximity operations, or in-orbit inspection tech.
On both occasions, the Chinese spaceplane returned for landing on a runway near the Lop Nur nuclear testing site in northwestern China.
The US military’s network of space-tracking assets quickly detected the Chinese spaceplane in orbit. Publicly available data from the US military show China’s spaceplane flying Thursday in a near-circular low-Earth orbit at an altitude of about 210 miles (340 kilometers), with an inclination of about 50 degrees to the equator. This is almost identical to the orbit achieved on China’s first spaceplane mission in 2020, while the second spaceplane flight launched into a more eccentric, or elliptical, orbit before maneuvering on its own to reach a stable perch some 375 miles (600 kilometers) above Earth.
The Long March 2F rocket used to launch China’s spaceplane can haul more than 8 metric tons of payload into low-Earth orbit, similar to the lift capacity of the Atlas V rockets the X-37B has launched on the most.
The Long March 2F’s payload shroud has a diameter of about 13.8 feet (4.2 meters). Imagery of the fairing wreckage recovered after the Chinese spaceplane launch last year showed unusual extensions on each side of the shroud. These may have been added to allow the wings of a spaceplane similar to the X-37B to fit inside the Long March 2F fairing.
This imagery was posted on YouTube last year.
While specific objectives for China’s third spaceplane mission are unclear, it might attempt more ambitious orbital maneuvers or remain in space longer than the program’s past missions. Throughout its six missions, the Pentagon has augmented the X-37B with new capabilities, most recently a service module mounted to the vehicle’s tail to accommodate more experiments and payloads.
The X-37B’s next mission, which might launch in late December or in January, appears to be heading into a high-inclination orbit that could take the spaceplane tens of thousands of miles above Earth, according to independent analysts. This would be a major change from the prior X-37B flights, which remained in low-Earth orbit.
Continuing with X-37B
Saltzman said the military wants to “expand the envelope” of the X-37B’s performance on the upcoming flight.
“There are some good experiments and tests. That’s the primary goal of that, testing technologies,” he said. “There’s some experiments being run. The beauty of it is that you can put something in the space environment and then bring it home and look at it. That’s the beauty of a spaceplane concept.”
There are plans for additional X-37B missions beyond the next one, according to Saltzman. One reason might be because China has its own spaceplane at a time of what US military officials often call “great power competition” between the two nations. When the military frames it that way, lawmakers are often ready to approve spending.
“We fight for funding on this all the time, but I think this great power competition has really worked to our advantage in some areas, and if we have a capability, the idea of creating a gap in that capability is a concern with congressional members, at least that’s the way they voice it to me,” Saltzman said.
“Once we have a capability, they never want to back out of it,” Saltzman said. “So, I think, maybe the easiest thing to say is they are receptive to hearing our plans to continue the program. That’s a far cry from saying now we have full funding. But I think keeping things alive like that has always been well-received.”