What to Know About China's Top-Secret Spaceplane

What to Know About China's Top-Secret Spaceplane This week, the Pentagon released a full-resolution image of the vehicle, the capabilities of which remain rather mysterious. The spacecraft was caught on camera by a commercial satellite in low orbit. A winged Chinese spacecraft bearing a strong resemblance to the US military's X-37B spaceplane was photographed in orbit by a passing US-owned commercial satellite in 2024, and we finally have the image. The Chinese spaceplane has delta wings, payload bay doors, a dark heat shield, and a rear-mounted service module with power-generating solar arrays. In other words, the design of the winged ship is, to a great degree, a copy of the X-37B spaceplane flown by the US Space Force.