The spaceplane has been in orbit for more than 165 days. (Representative image)
The US Space Force has noted that there is another object released by China's secret space plane that is now in orbit. It is not yet known what it is, but it has been named 59884 (2023-195G), adding to the existing curiosity about the reusable spacecraft mission, according to Space news.
The spaceplane has been in orbit for more than 165 days since its launch in December 2023. On previous occasions, this was not something unusual as other objects had been deployed and strange signals had been emitted from them, the media said.
However, experts can only speculate on the reasons behind such a move. This particular action follows a similar action during its second flight in 2022, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who notes that on this occasion this spacecraft jettisoned an object for proximity and recapture tests in the over time. Is this therefore another repetition of the test, or are new things emerging?
“A new object (59884/2023-195G) has been cataloged as associated with the Chinese CSSHQ spaceplane in an orbit of 602 x 608 km x 50.0 degrees. It appears to have been ejected on May 24 around 1900 UTC,” wrote McDowell on X.
This object could be a subsatellite deployment, or it could be a piece of hardware ejected before the end of the mission and deorbit (the first spaceplane flight did something similar). It will be interesting to see if the plane maneuvers or lands soon.
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) May 26, 2024
“This object could be a subsatellite deployment, or it could be a piece of hardware that was ejected and deorbit before the end of the mission (the spaceplane's first flight did something similar). It will be interesting to see if the plane is maneuvering or landing soon,” he posted shortly afterwards.
The answer still lies with China, which has maintained secrecy over its spaceplane operations. Furthermore, this incident has shown the Chinese space program how far they have come, while only leaving us with questions about what they really want.