China launched its top-secret reusable experimental spaceplane into orbit last week, two years after the mysterious spacecraft’s first clandestine mission.
Little is known about the spaceplane, dubbed the “Reusable Experimental Spacecraft” or “CSSHQ,” however, military sources and concept art suggest it could be a veritable clone of the United State’s equally enigmatic spacecraft, the Boeing X-37.
According to the state media outlet Xinhua, the CSSHQ was launched atop a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at around 16:00 UTC on August 4.
The spacecraft was reportedly later tracked by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron in a 346 by 593-kilometer orbit inclined by 50 degrees.
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