The DIA's threat assessment suggests China may soon place directed energy weapons in space.

The DIA’s threat assessment suggests China may soon place directed energy weapons in space.

A winged Chinese spacecraft bearing a strong resemblance to the US military’s X-37B spaceplane was photographed in orbit by a passing US-owned commercial satellite in 2024, and we finally have the image.

The Chinese spaceplane has delta wings, payload bay doors, a dark heat shield, and a rear-mounted service module with power-generating solar arrays. In other words, the design of the winged ship is, to a great degree, a copy of the X-37B spaceplane flown by the US Space Force.

The photo was taken by a commercial imaging satellite owned by a company called Vantor, known as Maxar in 2024. Vantor is one of several companies that provide reconnaissance imagery of locations around the world to the US military and US intelligence agencies. The same Earth-imaging satellites can point their telescopes at objects in space.

  • Ariselas@piefed.caEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    How do we know that the X-37B isn’t a copy of the Chinese spaceplane?

    • Synapse@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 days ago

      The sequence of events does ? X-37 first test flight happened on 7 April 2006. Shenlong was revealed with a reduced scale model on 11 December 2007.

      It’s a not given that one copied the other. They could be independently developed and converge to a similar design simply because they happen to target similar objectives and requirements.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 days ago

        It’s a not given that one copied the other. They could be independently developed and converge to a similar design simply because they happen to target similar objectives and requirements.

        Its possible, but not very likely.

        Keep in mind the USA is not above copying another nation’s spacecraft.

        Here’s the Russian MiG-105 they first flew in 1976 in atmospheric tests (it never flew in space):

        Australians recovered a scale model from the sea that Russia launched in 1982:

        Here is the NASA mockup from 1990 for the USA’s HL-20 derived from NASA reverse engineering the recovered model:

        Here is the private US company Sierra Space’s current vehicle under construction Dreamchaser derived from NASA lifting body research currently scheduled to fly to space next year (delayed):

        • reptar@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 days ago

          This is what physics requires when you go really fast through atmosphere. Also, the x20 was a similar design - not quite so upturned at the front- back in the 1950s.

          Hypersonic = blunt nose