Unexplained object in orbit: US tracks Chinese Shenlong deployment

The United States Space Force detected a mysterious object at an altitude of 595 kilometers above the Earth. It was launched into orbit by the Chinese secret spacecraft Shenlong. This is its third such mission, writes The South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post reports that the Chinese autonomous secret spacecraft is already on its third mission in Earth's lower orbit. During previous missions, it launched satellites into space. Now, it is unclear what object is just above our planet.

"The unknown object was ejected from Shenlong on May 25 and detected by US Space Force space domain awareness teams. Catalogued as object 59884, it has been orbiting Earth since then at an altitude of around 600 km," the newspaper reads.

But since its release from the spacecraft, it has not performed any maneuvers, asserts Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

It may just be an inert piece of hardware, he suggests.

According to the newspaper, neither the spacecraft nor the mysterious object have emitted any new signals since the end of May.

Shenlong, which translates to "Divine Dragon," is often seen as the equivalent of the American military spaceplane X-37B. Very little is known about it.

It made its maiden flight in 2020, which lasted just two days. Then in August 2022, Shenlong set off on its second mission, which lasted nine months. During this mission, a subsatellite was reportedly ejected and recaptured a couple of times by the plane to test related technologies, writes the newspaper.

Little is known about the course of this third mission by Beijing, except that the spacecraft raised its orbit from about 305 kilometers to 595 kilometers by the end of January, where it has remained.

Chinese space authorities have not disclosed details of the latest Shenlong mission or its end date. Everything stated was included in a brief report published by state media shortly after launch.

"It’s going to operate in orbit for a period of time before returning to its intended landing site in China," the Xinhua agency quoted the launch report.

"Reusable technology verification and space science experiments will be carried out to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space," this is how China justified the resumption of mysterious near-Earth missions.