A newly released US intelligence assessment has provided the clearest public view yet of China’s highly secretive Shenlong spaceplane.
The robotic spacecraft, whose name means “divine dragon,” has previously attracted attention after apparently deploying unidentified objects while operating in low-Earth orbit.
Since Shenlong completed its first mission in 2020, the vehicle has been closely monitored by governments, national space agencies and commercial satellite operators.
Until now, however, observers had seen little more than an indistinct image showing sunlight glinting from the spacecraft’s surfaces.
The first detailed photograph appears in the Defence Intelligence Agency’s latest Challenges to Security in Space report.
Tucked inside the 130-page publication is an image taken in 2024 by Maxar Technologies, now known as Vantor, showing the Chinese spaceplane in orbit.
The report labels it simply as a “PRC [People’s Republic of China] Spaceplane” and explains that such vehicles can reach orbit, deploy or evaluate objects in space, and then return to Earth.
Neither the document nor its caption identifies the photograph as the first clear image of Shenlong or explains why a previously unavailable view has now been made public.
A US intelligence report has released the clearest known image of China’s secretive Shenlong, or “divine dragon,” spaceplane (pictured)
Captured by Vantor in 2024, the photograph shows the vehicle with its payload-bay doors open and a second satellite attached to its rear
Like the former US space shuttle, Shenlong is carried into the sky on a rocket before operating in orbit and making a runway-style landing.
Its latest known flight started on February 7 this year, when the craft was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China.
Beijing has disclosed very little about the experimental vehicle and has never published an official photograph of the spaceplane.
As a result, the newly surfaced image gives the public an unusually valuable opportunity to study Shenlong’s design and consider what roles it may be capable of performing.
In a post on X, Vantor said the intelligence report records China’s growing activity in space, including its development of reusable spacecraft, and features the company’s WorldView Space imagery of the Chinese vehicle in orbit during 2024.
Vantor’s annotated image identifies the craft as PRC Test Spacecraft 3 and estimates its length at 26 feet, or 8 metres.
The image also appears to show the payload-bay doors partially open, while a separate satellite is attached to the back of the spaceplane.
Measuring approximately 32 feet, or 10 metres, across, the attached satellite is thought to be a service module—an apparatus that can supply a spacecraft with extra power, propulsion or other support.
Perhaps most notably, the photograph confirms what analysts had long suspected: Shenlong bears a striking resemblance to the US Space Force’s own uncrewed spaceplane.
The X-37 began as a NASA research vehicle before responsibility shifted to the Department of Defense, and it remains one of the closest American counterparts to China’s reusable orbital craft.
Previously, the best images of the mysterious plane have been blurry reflections from its panel. However, radar tracking has shown the plane releasing several mysterious objects in orbit
Since 2010, X–37B has flown seven missions and spent more than 2,000 days in space conducting secret missions.
Officially, X–37B is an ‘experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, uncrewed space test platform for the U.S. Air Force,’ but its specific purposes are unknown.
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However, what is now abundantly clear is the remarkable similarity between the older American spaceplane and its new Chinese counterpart.
Professor Jonathan McDowell, a satellite tracking expert from Durham University Space Research Centre, told the Daily Mail: ‘The Chinese spaceplane is very similar to the X–37B, with a payload bay in the middle and a jettisonable service module with solar arrays at the back.
‘The wings are slightly different, but the overall layout, down to the tilted rear fins, says to me that some important official in China went to the space folks with a picture of the X–37B and said, “build me one of these”.’
However, despite these new images, many of the details concerning Shenlong and its functions remain unclear.
As the report notes, China has two named spaceplanes, Shenlong and Tengyun, meaning ‘cloud rider’, and it isn’t necessarily clear which this image shows.
Likewise, the DIA simply noted that China has launched three spaceplane missions, one in 2020, the second in 2022, and a third beginning in 2023.
Experts say that the Shenlong spaceplane is extremely similar in design to the US Space Force’s own robotic spaceplane, the X–38B (pictured)
US–based space tracking firm Leo Labs previously spotted ‘an unknown object in the vicinity of the Chinese Shenlong reusable spaceplane’, suggesting that it may be releasing small satellites in Low Earth Orbit
We do not yet know whether these were all conducted by the same plane or whether China has multiple operational spaceplanes in orbit.
Most importantly, the DIA has not yet publicly speculated on what Shenlong has been doing in LEO over these years.
Previous radar tracking has captured Shenlong releasing nine unidentified payloads around Earth.
It is believed that these are small, simple satellites called cubesats, but their function remains unclear.
In 2026, Professor McDowell also observed that Shenlong appeared to release a satellite into orbit before returning to retrieve it several months later.
The new report also notes that, during its second mission in November 2022, the spaceplane came within 330ft (100m) of a smaller spacecraft, potentially capturing and re–releasing it.
‘I suspect the vehicle also has a robot arm for deploying and retrieving satellites, but that is not visible on the photo,’ Professor McDowell explains.
However, despite the alarm this incident caused, Professor McDowell believes the spaceplanes’ function is simply to ‘show they [China] can do a robotic mini shuttle’.
Experts suggest that the Shenlong spaceplane is designed to demonstrate China’s capability to launch a robotic shuttle and to test technology in orbit. Pictured: An artistic render of the spaceplane
He adds that it would be ‘good for testing new equipment in orbit and then returning it to Earth intact for refurbishment and reuse’.
These findings come as the US warns of a rapid growth in capabilities within China’s military and civilian space program.
Besides Shenlong, China has also revealed images of a planned cargo spaceplane called Haolong, set to serve the Tiangong Space Station.
Haolong is known to weigh around 7,000 kilograms, with a length of 32ft (10m) and a width of 24ft (8m) with its wings unfolded.
The DIA now warns that China’s ‘rapidly expanding space program’ is second only to America’s own in size and ability.
Since 2016, the number of space launches taking place each year has more than tripled from 22 to 93, and Beijing has started deploying nine times more satellites per year.
Most worryingly, the NIA’s report warns that China sees space as a ‘strategic priority for military dominance’.
The report says: ‘China has developed and will continue to advance weapons for use against satellites in orbit to disrupt, damage, and destroy other nations’ space capabilities.
China has also revealed plans for a commercial cargo spaceplane, dubbed Haolong, set to supply the Tiangong Space Station
‘China continues to research, develop, test, and deploy multiple types of counterspace weapons, including ground-based ASAT missile systems capable of destroying satellites.’
Despite decades of international consensus that space was off limits for direct military action, multiple nations are now aiming to weaponise Earth’s orbit.
In September, US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed that the United States has ‘on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.’
This was the first time that the US has ever confirmed it has weapons stationed in space, raising concerns over a new space arms race.