Will China's Shenlong spaceplane serve as an ASAT anti-satellite system?

On August 26, 2022, a Long March 2F rocket put China's Shenlong spaceplane into orbit, for a mission that will last 276 days. This demonstration of force by the Chinese space industry represented a response from Beijing to the orbital flight of more than 900 days carried out by the Boeing X-37B space plane a few months earlier.

However, beyond the demonstration of technological force, the Shenlong flight showed above all that China was now capable of developing new orbital weapon systems.

This is particularly the case for split orbital bombardment systems, for which Beijing has shown that it simultaneously has the orbit vector, the Shenlong space plane, and hypersonic gliders capable of carrying out precision strikes. This new threat was then the subject of several detailed articles on this site.

Observed maneuvers of the Shenlong spaceplane

But it seems that Chinese engineers have not limited themselves, in their experiments around the flight of the space plane, to this area alone. Thus, observations carried out by the 18th Space Defense Squadron of the US Space Force show that the Shenlong carried out several missions during this flight, revealing other skills that are just as worrying as the SBF already can be. considered.

Indeed, the space plane was observed dropping a space object which, subsequently, evolved in concert with it in orbit, suggesting, according to an article published thespacereview, that the Shenlong could represent a new brick in the Chinese ASAT system, likely to bring the most significant operational added value in this area to China.

Release and evolution of a microsatellite

According to observations made, the Shenlong would have carried out recovery and release maneuvers twice a month with this object called “Object J”, which would also have been equipped with an Independent propulsion and maneuvering system.

Even if the release of microsatellites does not constitute, in itself, an ASAT maneuver, we can therefore easily imagine all the potential that such a system could have in terms of non-destructive neutralization of an orbital object such as an opposing satellite.

Several major powers, including the United States, Russia, China and India, have already demonstrated systems capable of neutralizing a satellite in orbit. However, all the means employed are based, until now, on the use of kinetic projectiles launched from a missile with exoatmospheric capability, to strike and destroy the targeted satellite.

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