China's Secret Shenlong Spaceplane Spotted Over America Looking Suspiciously Busy, US Intel Drops Rare Satellite Snap

Washington: China's most secretive spacecraft has just been caught on camera doing far more than Beijing ever admits to. The US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) has quietly slipped a rare, high-resolution satellite image of the top-secret Shenlong spaceplane into the latest space threat assessment, offering the world the clearest look at the robotic craft China has spent years trying to keep in the shadows.

According to Space.com, the image was captured in 2024 by a commercial ‘Vantor’ satellite, the company formerly known as Maxar, from just 90 km away with a startling resolution of 4.5 cm per pixel. The high-resolution image apparently shows the spacecraft not idly floating but hard at work in low Earth orbit. Particularly, appearing to be on a secret mission for China. 

DIA’s Space Threat Report Reveals Divine Dragon Docked With Payload

The photograph forms part of the DIA’s latest Challenges to Security in Space report and, as far as rare reveals go, this one is spectacular. It shows Shenlong, which means “divine dragon”, docked with another object in orbit, the solar panels fully deployed and the payload bay doors, situated towards the rear, hanging wide open.

The DIA termed the craft a space plane that can “launch into orbit to place objects in space or even test them and return to Earth", which is intelligence-speak for it can do almost anything.

Vantor noted that the vehicle is 26 feet long, though China, in keeping with tradition, has still not released a single official photograph of the spaceplane. Its closest American equivalent is the US Space Force's equally secretive Boeing X-37B, which is a reusable, unmanned vehicle that is launched on top of a rocket, operates in orbit and then returns to Earth to land like a conventional aircraft.

6 Years And 9 Mystery Objects Dropped In Orbit

The experts have suggested that China's Shenlong may be camera-shy, but it has been busy up above. The reusable, unmanned spaceplane has completed 4 known orbital missions since 2020 and is currently on the 4th, which began on February 7 this year when it lifted off aboard a Long March 2F rocket from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre.

During the time, it has made a habit of making headlines for releasing at least 9 unidentified objects into low Earth orbit, leading companies, amateur trackers and nosy people to follow every move using ground-based radar. The experts now suspect it may be testing satellite deployment, docking and close-proximity manoeuvres, the sort of polite terms that cover everything from servicing satellites to possibly grabbing them.

Despite all such activity, Beijing has disclosed very little about the actual purpose or capabilities, leaving the new image to do all the talking. Those who fancy a spot of real-life spy work, Space.com, citing data from Heavens Above, reportedly said that Shenlong will be visible to the naked eye in the pre-dawn sky, passing over Denver on November 3 and Los Angeles on November 5 and 6. The event will give Americans a rare chance to wave at China’s divine dragon as it goes about not-so-secret business.