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DIA Releases Clearer Maxar Photo Of China’s Reusable Shenlong Spaceplane With Service Module
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DIA released image of China's Shenlong spaceplane with service module, captured by Maxar in 2024. The photo shows rear-facing solar arrays, confirming the service module attachment.
6 outlets told this the same way.
DIA releases clearer image
The Defense Intelligence Agency released a new unclassified report, Challenges to Security in Space, that includes a higher-resolution in-space photo of a Chinese reusable spaceplane captured by a Maxar spacecraft in 2024.
The Chinese winged spacecraft resembles the US military’s X-37B, noting that the photo was taken by a commercial imaging satellite owned by Vantor, known as Maxar in 2024.
The DIA 2026 edition details space defense and military goals, including strategies, plans and intentions, of China, Russia and the emerging space powers of Iran and North Korea.
The DIA’s unclassified photo offers clear views of Shenlong’s unique, rear-facing solar panel arrays, and it placed the photo on page 53 of the report.
The DIA published the Maxar image in its Challenges to Security in Space report on Oct. 26, 2026, providing a rare view of the spacecraft in orbit with its service module attached.
Missions and orbital behavior
China launched its first-ever prototype of a spaceplane in 2020, and Inside Outer Space said it stayed in orbit for 2 days before returning to Earth. China’s second spaceplane mission in August 2022 spent 276 days in orbit, and it described the DIA report’s account that the spaceplane appeared within 100 meters of a companion satellite. China’s third space plane mission launched in December 2023 and stayed on orbit for 268 days, during which it released and interacted with an object.
China has launched four spaceplane missions since 2020 with durations of up to nine months, and it said the fourth mission is in orbit today after launching in February. Ars Technica said it is not publicly known whether China has one or more such spaceplanes in its inventory, while it described the Space Force’s two X-37Bs as flying in rotation with the longest mission running two-and-a-half years from launch until landing.
What the image implies
The Aviationist said the DIA report identifies two Chinese space models, Shenlong and Tengyun, but it is not known which of those is in the image. DIA included the higher-resolution image of the Chinese spaceplane in a new unclassified report on global security challenges outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, and it described the design as nearly a dead ringer for the X-37B. The DIA report does not reveal much new about what the Chinese spaceplane does in orbit, and it added that most of the X-37B’s activities in space are classified.
The DIA’s photo caption simply describes it as an unnamed Chinese “spaceplane,” but it said it is almost certainly China’s second reusable orbital vehicle, Shenlong. The DIA report includes the in-space photo captured by a Maxar spacecraft showing details of a Chinese spaceplane, and it framed the assessment as covering the space defense and military goals, including strategies, plans and intentions, of China.