Amateur astronomer spots China’s ultra secretive space plane flying over Europe

Pictures taken by an amateur astronomer showed a secretive Chinese space plane flying high up over Austria, revealing yet undisclosed features of the experimental craft.

China launched the reusable space plane Shenlong – meaning Divine Dragon – for its third mission in December aboard its Long March 2F rocket and it has been orbiting the Earth since.

It has previously completed two missions since 2020 with the previous one lasting over 250 days.

Space observers have noted that the plane launched at least seven satellites into orbit in the last seven months in its current mission.

Chinese officials have neither acknowledged the space plane’s existence nor have revealed any information about the nature of the objects it has released.

While the US Space Force said it has been tracking the space plane since it launched, there still aren’t any publicly verifiable images of the secretive vehicle.

China designed the plane for multi-year robotic Earth-orbiting missions after it was launched aboard a rocket from the Gobi Desert.

The 30ft-long space plane is expected to return and land back safely on runways similar to conventional aircraft.

Images taken by space watcher Felix Schöfbänker in Upper Austria have now revealed some features of the space plane, including what appears to be a pair of solar panels powering the craft.

Mr Schöfbänker, an amateur astronomer in Austria, used a telescope with a 14-inch mirror to follow the released objects on 30 July.

In the footage he prepared by stitching together the best frames, he noticed features what seemed like the plane’s solar panels.

However, since this is a previously unseen part of the space plane, he suspects it may be something else.

“I am not really sure if they are solar panels or some other features like an antenna or something of that nature,” Mr Schöfbänker told Space.com.

The latest footage, although grainy, suggests that the space plane has lowered its orbit to about 350 km above Earth.

The US Space Force is also operating a Boeing-built space plane – X-37B – in orbit which is smaller than the Chinese vehicle.