New DIA Space Report Includes Photo of Chinese ‘Space Plane’

The National Interest | Peter Suciu

The Defense Intelligence Agency released a 2026 report titled Challenges to Security in Space: Congestion, Competition, and Cooperation, publishing a 2024 Vantor satellite image of China's secret Shenlong spaceplane. Captured in orbit, the uncrewed platform closely resembles the Boeing X-37B, featuring wider delta wings, twin vertical tails, and an internal payload bay with upward-opening doors.

Beijing claims the spacecraft conducts orbital test flights to lower space mission costs. Whether the platform relies on stolen Western designs or concurrent engineering requirements remains uncertain. Beijing has conducted up to four orbital launches atop Long March 2F booster rockets since 2020. Its precise payload remains unconfirmed. Both platforms rely on rocket-boosted launches and horizontal glide landings on conventional runways. United States intelligence assessments indicate both craft fulfill similar orbital operational roles. This visual release provides the clearest public documentation of China's reusable space technology to date.

Comment

The deployment of reusable uncrewed lifting-body platforms like Shenlong reflects a shift toward rapid-turnaround orbital payload delivery and flexible space-based reconnaissance. By utilising a horizontal runway landing recovery model identical in aerodynamic concept to the Boeing X-37B, the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force reduces the operational overhead associated with expendable launch vehicles. The integration of an internal payload bay with active bay doors enables the covert deployment or inspection of orbital assets during extended missions.

This technological convergence mirrors the Soviet Union's development of the Buran space shuttle during the late Cold War, where aerodynamic requirements and perceived mission parity dictated structural symmetry with the NASA Space Shuttle. Re-entry thermal management and orbital glide dynamics imposed identical physical constraints on the Buran airframe, producing a design profile virtually indistinguishable from American shuttles despite differing internal propulsion architectures.

Strategic Question for Discussion

If platforms like Shenlong and the Boeing X-37B become primary vehicles for orbital payload deployment, which operational factor will do more to determine military advantage in low-Earth orbit — rapid turnaround capacity or payload bay modularity?

The available evidence points toward rapid launch turnaround as the decisive operational factor for uncrewed spaceplanes in high-intensity crisis scenarios. While modular payload bays permit versatile mission profiles ranging from signals intelligence to counter-space operations, the capacity of systems like the Boeing X-37B and Shenlong to achieve rapid orbital re-entry and launch turnaround determines how effectively a state can replenish degraded satellite constellations.

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