China’s Secret Spaceplane Unveiled: High-Resolution Images Reveal X-37B-Like Design

In 2024 a commercial imaging satellite owned by Vantor (operating as Maxar) captured a high‑resolution picture of a Chinese winged spacecraft that bears a striking resemblance to the US Space Force’s X‑37B spaceplane. The image, released in an unclassified assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), lays bare the vehicle’s external geometry and revives debate over Beijing’s expanding orbital capabilities. The craft, often referred to in Western media as “Shenlong,” sports delta‑shaped wings, a payload‑bay door, a dark heat shield, and a rear‑mounted service module equipped with solar arrays for power generation. Like the X‑37B, it is launched inside a conventional rocket’s payload fairing, operates as a satellite in low‑Earth orbit (LEO), and returns autonomously to land on a runway for refurbishment. Since 2020 China has flown four missions of this reusable experimental spacecraft, each lasting up to nine months, with the fourth vehicle still aloft after its February 2024 launch. Orbital analyst Jonathan McDowell documented that the craft released a sub‑satellite in June, captured it with a robotic arm in July, and repeated the maneuver in August and September—demonstrating on‑orbit assembly and retrieval capabilities. The DIA report stresses that the “enhanced maneuverability” of spaceplanes makes them “more suitable for certain missions than traditional satellites,” a trait that dovetails with China’s growing interest in counter‑space weapons. The agency notes that China already fields multiple ground‑based directed‑energy weapons (DEWs) capable of dazzling or disabling LEO assets, and it may deploy space‑based DEWs by the late 2020s. The emergence of non‑Earth imaging (NEI) – the practice of using Earth‑observation satellites to photograph objects in space – adds a new layer of commercial and intelligence espionage to the high frontier. As the US Space Force expands its constellation of inspector satellites in geosynchronous orbit, the race to dominate orbital access and protect critical space infrastructure appears set to intensify.