SPACE
CHINA’S SECRE T SPACE PLANE HAS RELEASED AN UNKNOWN OBJEC T
WORDS SAMANTHA MATHEWSON
At around 20:00 BST on 24 May, China’s mysterious Shenlong space plane released an unidentified flying object 372 miles above Earth’s surface. Experts outside China don’t know what the object is, but they believe it may be a small satellite or a piece of hardware ejected before the craft is scheduled to deorbit. The US Space Force has been tracking the space plane since it launched on 14 December. Little is known about the craft, although it appears to be similar to the clandestine Boeing X-37B space plane developed by the US, which is capable of making years-long excursions into orbit. China’s space plane first launched in 2020 and remained in orbit for just two days. It stayed aloft for 276 days during its second voyage, beginning in late 2022.