{"id":443862,"date":"2020-09-09T09:59:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T13:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/uncategorized\/chinas-mysterious-reusable-spacecraft-just-spent-two-days-in-orbit.php"},"modified":"2020-09-09T09:59:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T13:59:43","slug":"chinas-mysterious-reusable-spacecraft-just-spent-two-days-in-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/futurism\/chinas-mysterious-reusable-spacecraft-just-spent-two-days-in-orbit.php","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Mysterious Reusable Spacecraft Just Spent Two Days in Orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p><div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2020\/09\/china-mysterious-spacecraft-two-days-orbit-300x158.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"According to state media, China's mysterious recently launched spacecraft made it's way safely back down to Earth after spending two days in orbit.\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/div><h2>Top Secret<\/h2><p>On September 4, China launched a mysterious, top-secret &ldquo;reusable test spacecraft&rdquo; atop a Long March 2F rocket at the country&rsquo;s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia. And according to state media, it made its way safely back down to Earth after spending two days in orbit.<\/p><p>The spacecraft is shrouded in mystery. We don&rsquo;t know what it looks like, what it does &mdash; or even exactly where and when it landed, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/china-experimental-reusable-spacecraft-mystery-mission-lands.html\"><em>Space.com<\/em> points out<\/a>.<\/p><p>Adding to the mystery, <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/chinese-reusable-experimental-spacecraft-releases-object-before-returning-to-earth\/\"><em>SpaceNews<\/em> reports<\/a>, is the fact that the spacecraft appeared to have released an unknown object before making its return journey.<\/p><h2>Space Push<\/h2><p>All we got from officials was an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2020-09\/06\/c_139346803.htm\">extremely brief update<\/a> from state media website <em>Xinhua News<\/em>. &ldquo;China&rsquo;s reusable experimental spacecraft on Sunday returned to the scheduled landing site after a two-day in-orbit operation,&rdquo; reads the succinct update.<\/p><p>According to the report, the vehicle is designed to carry Chinese astronauts to and from space, and is not for military use &mdash; despite the secrecy.<\/p><p>&ldquo;The successful flight marked the country&rsquo;s important breakthrough in reusable spacecraft research and is expected to offer convenient and low-cost round trip transport for the peaceful use of the space,&rdquo; read the update.<\/p><h2>Expert Take<\/h2><p>Jonathan McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and satellite tracker, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/planet4589\/status\/1302638350684299270\">suggested on Twitter<\/a> that the spacecraft may be similar to the top secret X-37B spy plane built by the US Air Force.<\/p><p>However,&nbsp;he <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/planet4589\/status\/1302638850611843077\">didn&rsquo;t rule out<\/a> that it could be a SpaceX &ldquo;Dragon-style capsule with a parachute landing in the Taklamakan [desert] somewhere.&rdquo;<\/p><p><strong>READ MORE: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/china-experimental-reusable-spacecraft-mystery-mission-lands.html\">China&rsquo;s reusable experimental spacecraft returns to Earth after two-day mystery mission<\/a> [<em>Space.com<\/em>]<strong><br><\/strong><\/p><p><strong>More on the spacecraft:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/the-byte\/china-launched-mysterious-reusable-test-spacecraft\">China Just Launched a Mysterious &ldquo;Reusable Test Spacecraft&rdquo;<\/a><\/em><\/p><p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/china-mysterious-spacecraft-two-days-orbit\">China&rsquo;s Mysterious Reusable Spacecraft Just Spent Two Days in Orbit<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\">Futurism<\/a>.<\/p><p>See the rest here:<br><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/china-mysterious-spacecraft-two-days-orbit\" title=\"China&rsquo;s Mysterious Reusable Spacecraft Just Spent Two Days in Orbit\">China&rsquo;s Mysterious Reusable Spacecraft Just Spent Two Days in Orbit<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Top Secret On September 4, China launched a mysterious, top-secret \u201creusable test spacecraft\u201d atop a Long March 2F rocket at the country\u2019s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/futurism\/chinas-mysterious-reusable-spacecraft-just-spent-two-days-in-orbit.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}