China’s official media announced that an experimental spacecraft made its way back to Earth on Monday after spending 276 days in orbit.
The spacecraft successfully finished a historic mission to evaluate the nation’s reusable space technologies.
According to state media, the unmanned spacecraft returned to the Jiuquan launch facility in northwest China on Monday as planned.
No information was provided regarding the nature of the spacecraft, the technology it tested, its altitude, or the locations of its orbits since launch in early August 2022. The public has not yet seen any images of the craft.
The test marks an ‘important’ breakthrough in China’s research into reusable spacecraft technology that will provide a more convenient and inexpensive way to mount future space missions, state media reported.
In 2021, what may have been a similar spacecraft flew to the edge of space and returned to Earth on the same day in a mission that was also kept largely under wraps.
It landed on Earth ‘horizontally’ according to China’s main space contractor at the time.
Commentators on Chinese social media have speculated that Beijing has been developing a spacecraft like the US Air Force’s X-37B, an autonomous spaceplane that can remain in orbit for years.
The uncrewed and reusable X-37B returned to Earth in November last year in its sixth and latest mission, after more than 900 days in orbit.
Last month, a Chinese company became the first to launch a liquid-propellant rocket into space, taking another step towards developing SpaceX-style reusable rockets.