The image is widely believed to show China's secretive Shenlong, or "divine dragon," space plane, which has been in action for just over six years. During this time, the reusable winged spacecraft has repeatedly made headlines after deploying various unidentified objects in low Earth orbit (LEO). As a result, government officials, private companies and individual researchers have closely monitored the vehicle using tools such as ground-based radar.
On Monday (Oct. 26), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released the latest version of its "Challenges to Security in Space" report, which assesses the various factors that pose a risk to American space assets. Deep within the 130-page document (on page 53), the authors included a previously unseen image of a "PCR [People's Republic of China] Spaceplane." The image's brief caption revealed that the photo had been taken in 2024 by a satellite belonging to the private space company Maxar Technologies, now known as Vantor.
The new image suggests that Shenlong looks very similar to the U.S. Space Force's X-37B spaceplane, which is also currently orbiting Earth. (Image credit: U.S. Space Force)
Neither the caption nor the related section of the report made any mention of the photo being the first of its kind or explained why it was previously classified, raising questions about whether the authors realized its significance.
However, there has been no confirmed launches of Tengyun to date. Existing photos of a potential prototype also hint that this vehicle's design looks markedly different from what we can see in the new photo. Therefore, most experts agree that the spacecraft in the image is most likely Shenlong.
It is not the world's only active space plane. The U.S. Space Force has its own, the X-37B, which has already completed seven orbital missions since its first launch in 2010 and is currently in LEO experimenting with quantum navigation. Based on the new photos, Shenlong shares many similarities with its American counterpart.
Until now, the only direct images of Shenlong were blurry snaps of light reflecting off the spacecraft back to Earth's surface. (Image credit: Felix Schöfbänker via Space.com)However, the two spacecraft are not exactly the same: "The overall arrangement resembles the American vehicle, although differences in wing geometry show that the two spacecraft are not externally identical," according to specialist news site Global Defense News.
The new image also indicates that Shenlong is most likely not a military asset, Global Defense News reported, noting that "the image does not establish a weapons role."
Shenlong shares the same key design features as X-37B (right) but is not identical to its American counterpart. (Image credit: Left image: DIA/Maxar Technologies; right image: USAF/SpaceX)"China has developed and will continue to advance weapons for use against satellites in orbit to disrupt, damage, and destroy other nations' space capabilities," DIA representatives wrote in a separate section of the new report. "Beijing aims to become the preeminent leader in space," they added.
The Shenlong story so far
The space plane is currently on its fourth mission, which launched Feb. 7 on board a Long March 2F rocket from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Live Science's sister site Space.com previously reported. In total, Shenlong has racked up more than 800 days in orbit. However, it is unclear whether the same spaceplane was used on all four missions or if China has more than one space plane in use.
Shenlong was most recently launched into space on board a Long March 2F rocket on Feb. 7. (This image shows the same rocket during a different launch in 2011.) (Image credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)RELATED STORIES
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The new report also mentions that the space plane "appeared to maneuver with a companion satellite" during its second mission in November 2022, coming within 330 feet (100 m) of the smaller spacecraft and potentially even capturing and re-releasing it.
This may support an existing theory that the main goal of Shenlong is to "conduct rendezvous and proximity operations" with other spacecraft, and that its payloads may be targets for it to practise flyby maneuvers in orbit.
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