China Spaceplane Spying On The US?
Is China’s spaceplane spying on the United States? While nothing has been proven, some think it might be. China’s top-secret spaceplane, Shenlong, released six mystery objects from orbit recently, and the signals coming from those objects are always strongest over North America.
The objects— which the US Department of Defense has designated by the names OBJECT A, B, C, E, and F— are currently being tracked by the US Space Force. Amateur astronomer and satellite tracker Scott Tilly has also been keeping track of the objects jettisoned by China’s spaceplane. Tilley recently spoke to the South China Morning Post about his findings regarding the transmissions coming from the objects.
“I’m seeing a pattern in its radio emissions while over me and it appears to favor low-elevation western passes,” the amateur astronomer told the paper. Tilley explained that the emissions “could indicate a clandestine gound station,” located somewhere on the west coast of North America or even on “a ship off the coast.” Tilley made sure to stress that what he was suggesting was pure speculation on his part.
As of right now, we still don’t know what the objects are or how they relate to China’s spaceplane.
According to Tilley, objects D and E have been giving off radio signals with “idle filler.” Object B, on the other hand, is “very bright” and could turn out to be the upper stage of the Long March 2F rocket China equipped their spaceplane with to allow it to reach orbit in the first place. Tilley further classified objects C and F as possible rocket debris jettisoned by the spaceplane, judging by their dimness and the way they were moving through the atmosphere.
Tilley and other satellite trackers have analyzed the signals and are confident that the emissions are coming from the six objects or sites near them. They came to this conclusion based on the fact that no other objects were in the path of the tracker’s antennas when the data was collected. On top of that, the signal’s modulation is “unique and has only been seen from previous Chinese space plane missions,” according to Tilley.
China’s space plane has done something similar in the past. On both of the plane’s previous missions—one in September 2020, the other in August 2022—it was observed releasing a small unknown object into orbit. At the time, it was assumed that the unidentified objects were service modules China was deploying from the spaceplane to test articles for practicing placing payloads in orbit or even possibly small satellites the Chinese would use to monitor the spaceplane from the outside.
Tilley has suggested that more important transmissions could be incoming. The amateur astronomer explained that the objects are all on different orbits ranging from circular to elliptical. According to Tilly, when the objects move closer to each other, there will be a potential for transmissions or other interactions between them.
Meanwhile, China has publicly stated that the spaceplane is for commercial use, not international espionage. It’s easy to see, however, that the spaceplane has obvious military applications, including hanging out in orbit for extended periods—transmitting and or receiving the whole time.
It’s unlikely that China will give any official word on what exactly the objects jettisoned from the spaceplane are actually doing. We’ll have to rely on amateur astronomers like Scott Tilley to find that out.
Sources: Space.com, South China Morning Post
