China Launched its own Spaceplane Today (X-37B equivalent)

sattrackcam.blogspot.com...

The spaceplane left something behind and it's been tracked.

a reply to: anzha

Chinese are flying.. Just landed on the moon. Launched 6g and now this..

originally posted by: anzha
sattrackcam.blogspot.com...

The spaceplane left something behind and it's been tracked.

Possible it’s a test payload to make sure it can deploy a payload into a stable orbit?

I thought the USA X plane used onboard sensors/experiment rather than deploying things?

Surely you don’t need a ‘spaceplane’ to launch anything into an orbit, as we see here, it can be tracked once in an orbit, a spaceplane is able to move orbits to make it harder to track??!

a reply to: anzha
Wonder if its a Chinese copy of the Tesla on its way to Mars?

a reply to: Forensick

I am sure it is a test payload. The question is /what/ it is testing.

I am fairly certain the US version can deploy payloads as well, but, afaik, has not done so.

So, the TSTO version seems to have flown recently.



Does not appear to have been orbital.

spacenews.com...

She landed.

originally posted by: anzha
So, the TSTO version seems to have flown recently.

Does not appear to have been orbital.

There were two flights of a Chinese suborbital spaceplane in July 2021 and August 2022.

The CSSHQ spaceplane that completed its second orbital flight yesterday is an orbital vehicle, and the second orbital flight of the CSSHQ began on August 4, 2022.

Links:
spacenews.com...
spacenews.com...
spacenews.com...

And three years after the original post, it's still not a potential threat. The Chinese can't get past the 'Made in China' part lol

Chinese Spaceplane did a number of things in orbit: docking with another sat; capture and inspection maneuvers; and more.

spacenews.com...

a reply to: anzha
Trying to catch up on the Xb37 capabilities.