HONG KONG, Sept 13 (Alliance News): A Chinese reusable experimental spacecraft, believed to be part of the country’s classified space plane program, has returned to Earth after spending over eight months in orbit.
This marks the latest move in the covert technological race between China and the United States to develop space planes.
Launched in December 2022, just before the U.S. military’s Boeing X-37B mission, China’s space plane completed its third known mission.
It landed on September 6 at an undisclosed site, with state news agency Xinhua hailing the test mission as a “complete success.” The spacecraft is speculated to be the “Shenlong” space plane, a project in development for two decades.
Space planes are reusable vehicles capable of flying in both Earth’s atmosphere and space, offering strategic advantages in space operations.
Both China and the U.S. are advancing in this field, raising global interest in the potential for future human space travel and military applications.
