Chinese spaceship releases six mysterious objects into space

The third test mission of a reusable robotic spacecraft launched from China continues to raise questions about its purpose, after the craft launched half a dozen small objects , tentatively called "wingmen" by skywatchers, into orbit.

Nicknamed Shenlong – Chinese for “divine dragon” – the experimental orbital craft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Thursday 14 December aboard a Long March 2F rocket, before falling into a low orbit similar to that of previous test missions conducted in September 2020 and August 2022.

Also during these missions, unidentified objects were tracked in the spacecraft's wake, which SpaceNews' Andrew Jones speculates are "inspector satellites" tasked with following the test vehicle, potentially helping it return safely to the surface.

Based on their radio emissions, the objects are likely to be small Banxing satellites developed in China and previously used to transmit images of other spacecraft.

Four days after its last launch, Shenlong deployed six objects, designated OBJECT A through F by the satellite tracking community.

Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley called the objects on X “mysterious gregarious.” As he explained to Space.com's Brett Tingley, the emissions from each device present a mix of signals, of which only some contain small amounts of information.

“The emission of OBJECT A or its neighbor is reminiscent of previous emissions from a Chinese space plane in the sense that the signal is modulated with a limited amount of data,” Tilley told Tingley in an email.

In contrast, OBJECT D and OBJECT E presented data-free signals, with emissions that appear to act as positioning signals. Unlike previous missions, the signals were intermittent, meaning observers on the ground had to work together for several days to gather enough details.

While he admits that satellite trackers may have missed signals on previous missions if they were brief blips, Tilley believes there's something different about this mission.

“We should be looking at close encounters between OBJECT A and OBJECTS D and E. D and E are on rather elliptical orbits, while A is on a nearly circular orbit,” he told Tingley.

While amateur astronomers around the world share their theories about what the mysterious Chinese space plane might be up to, the United States is undoubtedly quietly watching with its own interests.

Boeing's experimental X-37B space plane has much in common with China's Shenlong, not least the secrecy of its development.

There are currently not many details about its purpose or capabilities, having originated as part of NASA's X-37 project at the turn of the last century before becoming a US Department of Defense project in 2004.

With another test flight of the leaving the rest of the world to guess what's happening above.

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The article Chinese spaceship releases six mysterious objects into space comes from Economic Scenarios .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-nave-spaziale-cinese-libera-sei-misteriosi-oggetti-nello-spazio/ on Fri, 22 Dec 2023 09:12:33 +0000.