On December 14, China launched an experimental reusable spaceplane into low Earth orbit. The third A journey into space. China has remained silent about the spaceplane’s purpose, but amateur astronomer and satellite tracker Scott Tilley reported that six “mysterious wingmen” were tailing the spacecraft four days into the mission. I noticed that some of them seemed to be giving out signals.
“The test probe will operate in orbit for a certain period of time, and then return to its planned landing site in China,” Chinese state media said. Xinhua News Agency report. “During this period, verification of reuse technologies and space science experiments will be carried out as planned, and technical support for the peaceful use of space will be provided.”
This object is being tracked by multiple organizations and is emitting different types of data.
“The emissions at or near Object A are reminiscent of the emissions of early Chinese spaceplane ‘wingplanes’ in the sense that the signal is modulated with a limited amount of data,” Tilley said. space dot comadding that the objects labeled D and E appear to be broadcasting placeholder signals and do not appear to be sending any useful data.
Amateur radio operator Daniel Estevez analyzed the data from Object A and found small fluctuations in the transmission, but no other significant fluctuations.
“One thing is clear,” he wrote on his blog. Website. “The signal doesn’t contain much data because most of the bits show the same repeating pattern.”
The purpose of the additional satellites and what China is testing remains unclear.
[H/T: Space.com]