China's Space Plane Puts Mysterious Objects in Earth Orbit

China's Shenlong space plane caused intrigue this week after allegedly placing six unidentified objects into the Earth's orbit shortly after taking off on its third mission.

The objects, detectable by their signal, were identified by Canada-based satellite tracker and amateur astronomer Scott Tilley, who has been following the movements of the devices he has since labeled A through F.

The Shenlong was launched on a Long March 2F rocket on December 14 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, according to China's official news service Xinhua. The reusable robotic aircraft is on a mission whose detailed objectives have not been disclosed to the public.

The Shenlong, which was developed for the China National Space Administration as well as the Chinese People's Liberation Army, shares similarities with Boeing's X-37B, an orbital test vehicle variant used by the U.S. Space Force, which is scheduled for launch on December 28, on the back of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Tilley has been monitoring the objects deployed by the Shenlong. Their emissions have allowed Tilley and others to track their orbit around the Earth.

One of them, "OBJECT A," appeared to be emitting signals similar to those observed in the Shenlong's previous mission, according to Tilley's social media threads, which continued to receive updates late on Tuesday.

The China National Space Administration, Beijing's equivalent to NASA, did not return a written request for comment on Wednesday local time before publication.

China has made major advances its space program, sending probes to distant planets and extending crewed mission times with a view to establishing a permanent presence in orbit—and eventually on the Moon.

Chinese officials maintain the country's space program is civilian and scientific in nature. Meanwhile, it continues to achieve significant leaps in technological prowess and strategic capabilities.

"During the in-orbit operation, the spacecraft will conduct verifications for reusable technologies and space science experiments to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space," Xinhua said of the Shenlong's mission parameters.

Space.com, the specialist website, said this week that the Shenlong was observed releasing unknown objects into Earth orbit after its previous launches in September 2020 and August 2022.

Some of the objects tracked by Tilley may already have been present since the Shenlong's earlier missions but possibly were not detected at the time due to their intermittent nature, according to Space.com.

It was unclear whether the objects were intended to be recovered.

Beijing is in the space game for the long run, and its rapid progression—rivaling that of NASA and other space agencies in the West, has been evident.

Since the Shenzhou-12 manned mission launched in 2021, Chinese astronauts, or "Taikonauts," have been able to spend extended periods of up to six months in space, a meaningful increase from past missions that lasted four to 10 days.

The Chinese government has committed significant resources toward the construction of its modular Tiangong space station, which was seen fully complete in pictures released last month by the China Manned Space Agency.

The Shenzhou-17 spaceship, the latest crewed mission to Tiangong, lifted off from the Jiuquan site on October 23 and reached the space station in less than six and a half hours.