China’s secret spacecraft drops another mysterious object into space

According to the US Space Force, China’s unnamed space plane appears to have released another object into space. The nature of the object is unknown, but it has been named 59884 (International designation 2023-195G).

The Chinese spaceplane has been in orbit for more than 165 days and the new object was spotted on May 24. The spaceplane first arrived in orbit on December 14, 2023.

Since then, the spaceplane has been orbiting Earth, encountering other strange objects or emitting strange signals. While the nature of the new object is unclear, some, like Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, have some ideas.

The Chinese space plane releases another object

The spaceplane used a released object to perform multiple retakes as part of in-orbit testing during its second flight.

“A new object (59884/2023-195G) has been cataloged associated with the Chinese CSSHQ spaceplane in an orbit of 602 x 608 km x 50.0 degrees. It appears to have been ejected around 1900 UTC on May 24,” McDowell wrote on X.

“This object could be a subsatellite deployment, or it could be a piece of hardware ejected before the end of the mission and deorbit (the first spaceplane flight did something similar). It will be interesting to see if the plane maneuvers or lands soon,” he posted shortly afterwards.

Understandably, China has maintained strict secrecy surrounding its spaceplane mission. Notably, the country’s space authorities have not released any images or descriptions of the spacecraft.

The only official Chinese report on the activity is a brief launch report issued hours after the event. “During this period, reusable technology verification and space science experiments will be conducted as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful uses of space,” the report said.

What could it be?

Be that as it may, the Chinese spaceplane is currently on its third mission, and many believe its capabilities are somewhat comparable to those of the American X-37B. Both are intended as reusable spacecraft and represent a significant advance in space technology.

They can potentially reduce costs and increase mission frequency. The spaceplane’s first spaceflight, in 2020, lasted two days, while the second, launched in 2022, lasted 276 days. On both trips to Earth orbit, an object was released while in space.

During the current flight, the spaceplane performed maneuvers to change its trajectory. It initially entered an orbit of 333 km by 348 km with an altitude of 50 degrees. According to US Space Force space domain awareness data, the spacecraft later increased its orbit to the current 374 miles (602 km) by 378 miles (609 km) through a series of maneuvers.

As for China’s apparent inspiration, the Space Force’s X-37B embarked on its seventh mission on December 28 last year. It was launched into orbit using a SpaceX Heavy Falcon.

In orbit, the X-37B apparently entered a highly elliptical and inclined orbit, much higher than previous missions. Apart from that, little else is known about the highly secretive and autonomous X-37B reusable vehicle that began flying in 2010.