The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has released a new report assessing the scope and scale of adversary threats in space. DIA's 2026 publication, Space Security Challenges, details the space defense and military objectives of China, Russia, and emerging space powers Iran and North Korea, including space warfare strategy and the plans and intentions of major U.S. military and political adversaries. A recent report examines China's two main spaceplane models: the Shenlong and the Tangyun.
The DIA report, published in the publication pages, provides an image taken by the Maxar apparatus, showing parts of the Chinese spacecraft. As noted in the DIA report, in 2020, China launched its first prototype space plane into orbit, which remained in orbit for two days before returning to Earth. In August 2022, China's second space plane spent 276 days in orbit, much longer than the first. In November 2022, the spacecraft apparently maneuvered with a backup satellite and performed on-orbit position-keeping operations.
At one point, the two objects were less than 100 meters apart.
The spacecraft and satellite may have docked before the satellite was released back into orbit. In December 2023, China launched its third space plane, which remained in orbit for 268 days.
On this third mission of the spacecraft, it released and interacted with an object. The picture shows the military space plane X-37B (OTV-8). Image source: US Air Force Only 65 years have passed since man first entered outer space. Historically, this is a very short time. The dreams of scientists and engineers who naively believed that space would remain peaceful, alas, did not come true.