An amateur space photographer has managed to do the unthinkable—Felix Schöfbänker has captured a photo of the Chinese space plane. The plane is very similar to the United State’s own space plane, which can be seen in the header image above.
Schöfbänker captured the elusive photo using a 14-inch telescope setup and image rendering software. The space plane launched back at the end of 2023 on its latest mission, and nobody is quite sure what it is doing or how long it will remain in orbit around the Earth.
Schöfbänker told Space.com that the image he captured also appears to show something that other renders of the Shenlong space plane haven’t shown—two protrusions on one end of the craft. It’s possible these could be solar panels, though Schöfbänker says he isn’t quite sure what the protrusions seen in the photo of the Chinese space plane really are.
He said they could also be something like an antenna or something of that nature. It’s also possible that the protrusions could just be a rendering after-effect of the angle that the space plane was captured at. Still, capturing a photo like this is really exciting, especially for a space photographer like Schöfbänker.
It’s been more than 200 days since the Chinese space plane began its latest super secret mission. While the photo captured by Schöfbänker doesn’t really tell us anything about what the space plane is up to, it does give us an unexpected glimpse at the plane as it makes its way through orbit.
Unfortunately, just seeing it isn’t likely to help cool anyone’s worries about what China might be up to. With so much concern about China’s space plans—and its own attempts at espionage over the past several decades—many are very concerned about what the space plane is up to, especially since it has been documented releasing secret objects.
Fortunately, this photo of the Chinese space plane isn’t the only time that dedicated amateurs have had eyes on the craft. They continue to track its orbit around the planet.
