Space: China has received a spacecraft that has been in orbit for 276 days

Is it the brick of the Heavenly Palace, this space station that China is building for a base for its endless exploration? An experimental Chinese spacecraft returned to Earth Monday as planned, according to Chinese state media, after being in orbit for 276 days. The unmanned spacecraft has returned to the Jiuquan Launch Center.

No details have been provided about the nature of the machine, the technologies tested, nor the altitude it has flown at and the orbits it has traveled since its launch in early August 2022. Pictures of the vehicle have not yet been announced.

In 2021, what may be a similar spacecraft has flown to the edge of space and returned to Earth the same day on a mission that has also remained largely unannounced. It landed on Earth “horizontally,” according to the main Chinese space service provider at the time.

But the official Communist Party voice is already saying that this new test represents an “important” advance in Chinese research on reusable spacecraft technology, which will provide a more practical and less expensive way to launch future space missions. It announced in preparation for the launch, from its Wenchang site, of an assembly consisting of the Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft and the Long March-7 Y-7 carrier rocket. Manned flight, this time.

Some on Chinese social media have speculated that Beijing is developing spacecraft like the US Air Force’s X-37B, an autonomous space plane that can stay in orbit for years. The uncrewed, reusable X-37B returned to Earth in November of last year for its sixth and final mission, after more than 900 days in orbit.