U.S. Photo Shows China's Reusable Space Plane Joined to a Mystery Craft

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has released a rare, detailed photograph of China's secretive Shenlong space plane in orbit, attached to another spacecraft with its payload bay open, The Times of India reported. Who owns the second craft, and why the two were joined, remain unknown.

The image appears in the agency's Challenges to Security in Space report, which was released on Monday, according to the newspaper. It was taken in May 2024, during Shenlong's third mission, and gives one of the clearest public looks yet at a vehicle about which Beijing has said very little.

What the image shows

A U.S. satellite called WorldView-3 took the picture from about 90 kilometers away. The satellite is operated by the American imagery company Vantor, previously known as Maxar. Space.com reported that the photo has a resolution of 4.5 centimeters per pixel.

It shows Shenlong's wings and its open payload bay, the compartment used to carry equipment into space. Another spacecraft sits at the rear, with solar panels extended on both sides. A less detailed version of the same photo was presented by the U.S. Space Force in South Korea in 2024, according to the report.

How Shenlong's missions have unfolded

The vehicle launches on a rocket and returns by landing on a runway, which makes it reusable. China has been testing it for six years. These are the key steps reported so far:

• September 2020: The first flight took place and lasted two days.
• 2023: The second mission kept Shenlong in orbit for 276 days. An object was released during the flight, and the spacecraft may also have carried out proximity and rendezvous operations, in which vehicles maneuver close to other objects in space.
• May 2024: During the third mission, the U.S. satellite photographed Shenlong attached to another spacecraft.
• September 2024: The third mission ended after 268 days. An object was also observed near the vehicle during that flight.
• Feb. 7, 2026: China launched Shenlong a fourth time on a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre. Xinhua, China's state news agency, described the mission as part of work on reusable spacecraft technology for peaceful purposes.
• June 2026: The U.S. company LeoLabs detected an object near the vehicle. After analyzing data from its global monitoring network, it said it had determined with high confidence that Shenlong released the object.

Why it matters: what the picture does and does not settle

For readers, the main significance is how little is publicly known. Chinese authorities have not said what equipment Shenlong carries or what experiments it runs. The image shows that the plane can connect with another spacecraft in orbit. It does not explain the purpose, and the identity of the second craft is not known.

The objects seen near the plane are also unexplained. Proximity maneuvers could let a vehicle approach other objects, but the purpose of Shenlong's reported activities has not been confirmed. Another possible explanation is that the spacecraft was shedding equipment it no longer needed before coming home. Observers have not established what the objects were or why they were released, according to The Times of India.

How it compares with the U.S. X-37B

Shenlong is often compared with the Boeing-built X-37B, a reusable robotic spacecraft run by the U.S. Space Force. According to Aero Time, both have wings and a central payload bay, and both can spend long periods in orbit. Shenlong also has two tail fins.

The U.S. has disclosed more about its vehicle's experiments than China has about its own. For the X-37B's eighth mission, the Space Force announced tests of laser communications between satellites and of a quantum inertial sensor, which is meant to help spacecraft navigate without GPS. Earlier missions looked at aerobraking, the effects of space radiation on seeds, and the idea of collecting solar energy in space and sending power back to Earth. The U.S. has released relatively few photos of the X-37B in orbit. In February 2025, the Space Force made public an image that appeared to show its payload bay doors open.

Around Prague, based on reporting by The Times of India