For some years now China has been making innovative investments in the space domain. Apart from undertaking routine satellite launch missions, the country is undertaking missions which could possibly have both research and military utility. A Chinese spaceplane, dubbed as Shenlong, which is Chinese for ‘Divine Dragon’, is one such mission.
Recently, China launched its third spaceplane mission. Its first spaceplane mission in September 2020 lasted only for two days. The second mission, which started from August 2022 till May 2023, was operational for 276 days.
The third mission was launched on December 19, 2023. However, it’s not known for how many days or years this mission will last. During the ongoing mission, China has deployed six ‘mysterious wingmen’ into the Earth’s orbit, according to reports. Some suggest that these missions could be testing satellite swarm technology.
Spaceplanes are not a new concept. Research and several debates have been held on this subject since the early 1960s. Apart from the US and USSR (now Russia), the UK, France, and Japan have undertaken such missions in experiment mode or as fully operational systems.
A spaceplane could be viewed as a combination of aircraft and spacecraft. It flies (or glides) like an aircraft within the Earth’s atmosphere and operates as a spacecraft in outer space.
It appears that the first two-day mission launched by China was more like a prototype mission, and the second mission, which lasted for around nine months, could have given China the necessary confidence to plan more such missions. During the second mission, the spaceplane performed an orbit-raising maneuver on August 25, 2022. It was in a near-circular 597 by 608-kilometre orbit.
This indicates that China has developed a capability to position a craft in different orbits in a single mission. This reusable craft has been developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
These three missions demonstrate China’s success in developing reusable spaceplane technology and improved capabilities in the arenas like heat shields and landing equipment. Some experts believe that since this plane had demonstrated the capability of very high-speed re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, possibly this could assist China’s hypersonic missile program. However, it is important to mention that China already has a reasonably well-established hypersonic weapons program.
As earlier mentioned, China’s recent spaceplane has deployed six ‘mysterious wingmen’ into the Earth’s orbit. Currently, these objects are being tracked by the US Space Force. For ease of tracking, they have named them as OBJECT A through F.
Some of them are in a similar orbit and are known to have moved closer to each other. Most of them are emitting different types of signals. They are expected to make several close approaches with each other in future. During earlier missions, too, Chinese spaceplanes had released some objects in space, which were also tracked by the US Space Force. Experts believe that this time, the six objects show a different radio behaviour in comparison with the objects released during the earlier two missions.
Possibly, the technology used by China to design and develop these spaceplanes is similar to the Boeing X-37B (the secretive US spaceplane). This craft is a robotic autonomous vehicle and has been in NASA’s service since 2010. NASA and the US Space Force have already undertaken six launches of this vehicle. The US has developed two vehicles in this category and the majority of their missions stayed in space for a period of around two years. The last mission, which got back to Earth during November 2022, was out there for 908 days. These missions were at an orbit of around 400 km.
However, the US administration has been totally silent about the rationale behind undertaking these missions. Possibly, they could have conducted on-orbit science and military-related experiments during the long stay of these crafts in space.
It is obvious that both the US and the Chinese agencies must have gathered a significant amount of atmospheric, space weather-related and reconnaissance data (continuous data sets). Such data could be utilised for the development of various mathematical models. It is known that the worth of various Artificial Intelligence algorithms depends much on data inputs, and therefore, such humongous data could help these nations in fine-tuning their AI-based scientific and military models.
After conducting the anti-satellite test (ASAT) during 2007, China is found to have systematically developed its counter-space program. The messaging behind this test was very clear: China would not hesitate to take the warfare to outer space. After this test, concerns were raised over China’s reckless creation of space debris.
The year 2023 witnessed China undertaking various important space missions. For instance, it invested in some basic technologies which have been in use for centuries, such as high-altitude balloon missions. In early 2023, a Chinese balloon had intruded the US airspace, and in December, a balloon was detected moving across the Taiwan region.
From spaceplanes to balloons, China has been using a range of technologies for reconnaissance, undertaking experimentation (possibly of military relevance) and data generation.
In India, some decades ago, debates were going on in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) circles over the development of a spaceplane and a project called AVATAR (Aerobic Vehicle for Hypersonic Aerospace Transportation). Possibly, the idea was to develop a system for undertaking low-cost military and commercial satellite launches. Satellite swarm technologies have great scientific and strategic potential and now the time has come for India to take the projects like AVATAR to its logical conclusion.
Ajey Lele researches space issues and is the author of the book Institutions That Shaped Modern India: ISRO.
