Exposed for the first time! The U.S. military releases clear photos of China’s Shenlong space plane, with the hatch opening to dock with satellites

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently released a high-resolution photo of an orbiting satellite for the first time, clearly capturing China's reusable space aircraft "Shenlong" docking with a satellite in space, arousing great concern in the military community.

This key image was taken by the US commercial satellite company Vantor (formerly Maxar Technologies) in 2024 and was officially included in the 2026 version of the unclassified "Challenges to Security in Space" report released by the Defense Intelligence Agency on the 26th of last month.

Through this high-definition satellite image, it can be clearly seen that the Chinese unmanned space plane is docking with a satellite with unfolded solar panels, and the payload bay door of the space plane is open. In the past, public images available to the outside world were limited to blurry images taken by ground-based telescopes or computer-generated diagrams with Chinese labels.

The Defense Intelligence Agency pointed out in the "Major Developments in Space to 2040" section of the report that the United States is currently the only country with an operational reusable space vehicle (R-SLV) program, and China is actively seeking to become the second to achieve broader military, civilian and commercial goals in space; China currently has two main space plane models, the "Dragon" and "Tengyun".

Reported and recorded Shenlong’s multiple mission trajectories, including the first 2-day mission in 2020, the 276-day mission launched in August 2022, and the 268-day in-orbit flight launched in December 2023. The fourth launch was carried out in February this year. Observers generally compare it to the X-37B, an autonomous unmanned space fighter developed by Boeing for the US military.

David Shedd, the former acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Voice of America that the photo highlights that China is actively seeking to enhance its offensive and defensive posture in space. The report also warned that the People's Liberation Army may regard counter-space operations as a means to deter foreign countries from intervening in regional conflicts, by attacking enemy reconnaissance, communication and navigation satellites to "disable the eyes and ears" of the enemy.