ANALYSIS – Are they tracking U.S. military assets and communicating with a Chinese ship near our West Coast? Or are they preparing to attack U.S. space assets? Even as the United States delayed the December 13 launch of its own highly secretive X-37B spaceplane, China launched its version on December 14.
That vehicle then quickly deployed at least six unknown objects into Earth's orbit.
The Drive reported:
The Chinese spaceplane, named Shenlong (meaning Divine Dragon), has placed the objects in Earth orbit since it was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on December 14. The existence of these objects has been confirmed by amateur spacecraft trackers.
It added: “The spaceplane itself is launched atop a traditional space launch rocket and is propelled into orbit using a secondary booster. It returns to Earth in an unpowered mode, much like the X-37B.”
Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman told reporters earlier this month that China launching the Shenlong at around the same time as the X-37B was scheduled to go into space was “probably no coincidence.”
That may be partly the reason the U.S. launch was delayed.
Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post noted that the objects from “China's space plane could be sending signals to a hidden ground station or a ship near North America's west coast…”
It also noted that: “China's secret space plane emits strong signal to the ground when passing North America.”
Strong emissions were detected at the frequency of 2280 megahertz while the uncrewed reusable plane was flying over British Columbia, Canada, where amateur astronomer Scott Tilley is based. According to the Drive, Tilley:
…told Space.com's Brett Tingley that some of the objects — which have been named A, B, C, D, E, and F — seem to be transmitting signals. Tilley has described these objects as “mysterious wingmen,” a nod to the “loyal wingman” terminology used for the drones that operate collaboratively with piloted aircraft. The Shenlong, of course, is uncrewed.
The Drive added:
It's very possible that the craft has reached a point of maturity where more ambitious experiments are being fielded by it. For instance, satellites capable of on-orbit manipulation and disrupting, degrading, destroying, and surveilling other satellites is a major area of development as space increasingly becomes a contested environment.
It also noted that “The U.S. Space Force is already highly attuned to the concept of “orbital warfare,” both in terms of its own mission spectrum and of potential hostile actors, where China is a significant player.” The Drive continued:
Back in 2021, the U.S. Space Force confirmed that China (as well as Russia) was already launching “reversible attacks,” such as electronic warfare jamming, temporarily blinding optics with lasers, and cyber-attacks, on U.S. satellites “every single day.” As we discussed earlier, a spaceplane would be an especially suitable candidate to expand these types of missions and there is the possibility that the objects released by the Shenlong could even be related to exploring these capabilities.
Thankfully, President Donald Trump pushed to create America's Space Force, so we can better counter China's exponentially growing space warfare and intelligence gathering capabilities. It is clearly needed.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
READ NEXT: Trump's Futuristic Defense Agenda Finally Starts To Emerge
