The Chinese spaceplane, which recently returned from a nine-month mission, turned out not to have wasted any time in orbit. Among the experiments it performed were rendezvous operations with other spacecraft. At least twice the clandestine craft performed such maneuvers with an object that it had previously sent into free flight.
Details on the behavior of the Chinese spacecraft CSSHQ in orbit published the American company LeoLabs. It is engaged in tracking objects in near-Earth space on a commercial basis and the tracking of secret ships of other countries - apparently, an excellent advertisement. Previously, the firm shared details about the maneuvers of three dozen Iranian, Russian and Chinese satellites.
According to SpaceNews, citing LeoLabs, the secret Chinese spaceplane did not just change its orbit parameters over a wide range. Part of his maneuvers were related to a certain object that separated from CSSHQ October 31, 2022. For simplicity, it is called "Object J," the official designation being NORAD ID 54218 or COSPAR ID 2022-093J. Presumably, it is a microsatellite, and capable of independent maneuvers. LeoLabs representatives claim that Object J corrected its orbit at least five times.
Between November 2022 and April 2023, the CSSHQ shuttle made several approaches to Object J. These operations are divided into three periods. In the first, from November 25 to December 24, 2022, the distance between the vehicles was so small that the LeoLabs specialists consider it a docking. After that, the spacecraft moved away from the companion and they maneuvered independently until January 10, 2023. Then the two spacecraft "docked" again.
For the third phase, which lasted from February 20 to March 29, 2023, the data are not so clear. First, CSSHQ and Object J separated, then maneuvered next to each other, but LeoLabs is not sure that they have docked again.
It is worth specifying that the LeoLabs data is an array of radio-band measurements from observational stations around the world. As a result of long observations, modeling, and cross-corrections by different radars, accuracy can be substantially improved. But in any case, no one can say with certainty whether CSSHQ and Object J made direct contact. They may well have been up to tens of meters apart.
Based on the available data, it is clear that this was some kind of test of CSSHQ's ability to come very close to objects in orbits with close characteristics. Given that the spaceplane itself launched Object J, the theoretical ability of CSSHQ to inspect and retrieve microsatellites from orbit seems a logical conclusion.
Similar capabilities appeared for the purposes of the U.S. Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle unmanned shuttle test program. But there is no confirmation that such tests were conducted. It is known that the X-37B also launched microsatellites from its board.
The mention of the American spaceplane is not accidental: the comparison with it is almost the only way to describe the Chinese development. The X-37B may be shrouded in secrecy, but compared to the CSSHQ, it looks like a model of publicity. Very little information is reported about the shuttle from the Celestial Empire. What is known is that it exists, has already flown twice (in 2020 and 2022), and has a mass of no more than eight and a few tons (the payload of the launch vehicle).
The ship's name literally stands for "reusable experimental spacecraft. According to a widespread version, its development is closely related to another spacecraft, the Shenlong. But this is nothing more than speculation; there are no details about either one or the other spacecraft.
