Last year, China launched a reusable spaceplane that spent a total of 276 days in orbit around our planet. The spaceplane has recently returned to our planet, providing possibly abundant data to the state-run China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). While CASC offered no details about the plane’s purpose, new data from LeoLabs suggests the plane may have docked with an unknown object multiple times.
The unknown object in question is called Object J and is believed to be a satellite or similar object dropped by the spaceplane during its journey. LeoLabs, who specializes in tracking satellites and space debris around Earth, says he’s observed several large maneuvers and repeated docking with Object J.
LeoLabs says it believes the reusable Chinese spaceplane must have docked at Object J at least two, possibly three times. Like the purpose of the spacecraft, why it docked with Object J is unknown.
China is making big strides in space technologies, with plans to operate from its own space station and build a base on the Moon. Last year, a Chinese Mars rover began its work on the Martian surface in search of scientific data. We now know that he may have found evidence of water in the Martian dunes, but apart from that, China keeps much of its work a secret…
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