🔻The Pentagon released the first clear image of China’s secret space plane

🖋Pavel Aksyonov Military analyst at BBC Russian

🔻The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense has published an image of a “space plane” used multiple times by China, which was registered in 2024 by the company Maxar Technologies via satellite. Since then, the company has changed its name to “Venture.” This is believed to be the first clear image of this secret spacecraft, because the earlier images released of it available to the public were extremely blurry and unclear.

The image was published in a report titled “Space security challenges.” The report covers the military competition of the United States with China and Russia, as well as with North Korea and Iran—countries that also have space programs with military applications.

Space planes, also referred to as “cosmoplanes,” are among advanced spacecraft that have the ability to maneuver both in outer space and within Earth’s atmosphere.

Such devices have aerodynamic surfaces such as wings and a tail rudder, as well as a body with an aerodynamic shape, which enables them to fly with controlled maneuvering in the atmosphere.