Here’s a Rare Sighting of China’s Mysterious Spacecraft in Orbit

New photos show China’s orbiting spacecraft, revealing new details about its third secret mission—including a stunning look at what appear to be solar panels.

Astrophotographer Felix Schöfbänker used a 14-inch telescope to capture a series of images of the Chinese spacecraft and shared them on AstroBin, a photo hosting platform for astrophotographers.

Beelden van het Chinese ruimtevaratieg #Shenlong on aarde, vastlegged met the 14-inch telescope Felix Schöfbänker in Oostenrijk. pic.twitter.com/aNBmyDiVcm

— Marijke Louise (@MarijkeLouisevd) August 5, 2024

The images reveal a shadowy figure invisible in the darkness of space, which appears to be solar panels attached to the end of the spacecraft. That’s surprising—very little is known about China’s spacecraft, including whether it should be equipped with solar panels. From the photos, the spacecraft is estimated to be about 30 feet (10 meters) long.

The reusable spacecraft was launched on December 14, 2023 on a Long March 2F launch vehicle. This was the third launch of the spacecraft, with its first flight taking place in 2020. During its first mission, the spacecraft remained in orbit for only two days before returning to Earth. The second flight, China’s spacecraft was launched in August 2022 and spent 276 days in orbit.

Now on its third mission, the spacecraft is approaching its previous record as it has spent eight months in orbit so far. Shortly after the third launch, the orbital vehicle ejected six objects that appeared to emit some kind of signal. In May, the spacecraft emitted a mysterious emission, which was thought to signal the end of its mission but still appears to be going strong.

As the name suggests, spaceships are hybrid aircraft-spaceships, equipped with the ability to orbit the Earth like a spaceship and then operate as a normal aircraft in the Earth’s atmosphere that can land on the ground. The test spacecraft can be reused, filling a gap in the growing space industry that is looking to increase access to orbit.

Similar to China’s space shuttle, the US Space Force has its own test vehicle. The Boeing X-37 launched the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on December 28, 2023 on its seventh mission. Marco Langbroek, a professor of astrodynamics at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, recently took pictures of the X-37 spacecraft in orbit, which had not been seen since March.