The observed reentry of the Chinese CZ-2C upper stage 2018-054D over Australia on 28 February 2026

still from reentry movie. Click to enlarge. image (c) Robert H. McNaught, used with permission

On 28 February 2026 near 18:40 UTC, a Chinese CZ-2C upper stage (catalogue nr 43521, International Des. 2018-054D) reentered over southeast Australia.

Astronomer Robert H. McNaught filmed the early stage of the reentry from Coonabarabran (near Siding Spring Observatory), New South Wales. The event occurred low - about 10 degrees - above his northern horizon. His footage captures just over a minute of the early stages of the reentry, showing a single object sporting a clear plasma tail. After about a minute, the object moves behind cloud cover, only briefly to be seen again in a gap very low on the horizon. Above is a still from his movie, showing the rockert stage as a bright dot, sporting a bright plasma tail in its wake. Below is a snippet of footage from the movie:

 

 

Enough stars can be seen in the footage to do decent astrometry. I therefore measured several astrometric positions from the reentry movie, using AstroRecord.

Next, I used the last available orbit (dating from about 6h 45m before the reentry) to create a reentry model, using our open source TU Delft Astrodynamics Toolbox (Tudat). The goal was to see if I could recreate the trajectory as observed from Coonabarabran with our model.

Setting the mass at 3800 kg, I varied the drag area in the model untill I got a trajectory that indeed closely matches that filmed from Coonabarabran. 

Below is the result: red crosses are astrometric positions from the video footage, the blue line is the Tudat-modelled trajectory, and the blue numbers along the trajectory are the modelled atmospheric altitudes of the reentering object, in km. 

 

click diagram to enlarge

 

There is a discrepancy of about 20 seconds in time between the modelled trajectory and the observations, but otherwise it fits well in terms of the observed sky trajectory. 

The exercise provides information on the approximate altitude of the object during the reentry observations, and the geographic extend of the reentry trajectory. 

The footage picks the object up at an altitude of ~86 km, just as it begins to ablate, forms a plasma tail, and becomes incandescent, and before it starts to break up. The object is lost behind cloud cover at around 80 km altitude. Breakup likely occurred later, after the object went behind the cloud cover, once it reached 70-60 km altitude. By the time of breakup, from the reconstructed trajectory, it was likely already over sea: any remaining fragments fell into the ocean in front of the east coast of Australia.

In the map below, the blue line is the final trajectory: the yellow line is the part of the reentry trajectory that was above the horizon as seen from Coonabarabran (the part covered by the footage is shorter).

click map to enlarge

 

No final TIP was issued for this reentry by the US Space Force. The footage by Rob McNaught and this analysis is the only confirmation on where the object reentered. 

The  pre-reentry forecast by our Tudat model (see https://reentry.langbroek.org), based on a drag area that was slightly smaller than the result of the current analysis, had it reenter 20 minutes later, which given the almost 7 hours gap between the last available orbit and the moment of reentry, is actually not that bad an estimate.

With many thanks to Rob McNaught for communicating his observations, and for allowing me to use his imagery in this blogpost. Reentry footage (c) Robert H. McNaught.

[UPDATED] You Only Die Twice (redux): the unusual and confusing double reentry of a ZQ-3 upper stage (2025-282A)

Click map to enlarge

(The title of this blogpost is inspired by a similar titled post from several years ago) 

The uncontrolled reentry of a large (assumed 7-8 ton weight) Chinese ZQ-3 (Zhuque-3) upper stage, 2025-282A (catnr. 66877), on 30 January 2026 for some reason created quite some public attention, especially in Europe. But  the event became decidedly unusual when, nine hours after the US Space Force published the Final TIP, a second Final TIP appeared. We have not seen that happening before. 

So what do we have here: an object that reentered TWICE?

The first published "final" TIP, published about an hour after the listed reentry time, was for 30 Jan 2026, 12:39 UTC ± 1m, near 54.3 S, 170.4 W. 

This time and location incidentally where a very close match to the final result of the experimental Tudat reentry model we were running for this object at Delft University of Technology (nominal 12:39 UTC, 56.0 S, 179.3 W, see here).

Jonathan McDowell and I believe that the final TIP's with a quoted 1-minute uncertainty are in fact based on space-based (satellite) observations of the reentry fireball, so they are accurate (and refer to the object starting to ablate at roughly 90-80 km altitude).

So far so good: observed and modelled reentry moment well in agreement. Nice!

But then it got confusing. Several hours later that day, the US Space Force published a second "final" TIP, also with a quoted 1-minute accuracy: 13:43 UTC ± 1m, near 3.9 S, 60.7 E. This is half-a-revolution (1h 4m) later than the first TIP.

 

Screenshot of the two relevant TIP's as published on Space-Track

 

Both locations are indicated by the yellow circles in the map in top of this post (the blue cross is the nominal result of our Tudat reentry model, the solid blue line the one-sigma uncertainty in that estimate).

So what happened here? How did this object appear to reenter TWICE?

While it could all be a clerical error or a mix-up/false detection, I suspect that this unusual "double reentry" is genuine. This particular reentry was from a somewhat eccentric orbit, more so that your average reentry. The last available orbit from ~2 revolutions before the 12:39 UTC TIP, was 211 x 102 km, with apogee decidely higher than perigee. Under such circumstances, parts might surve a low perigee (low enough to initiate ablation and partial reentry).

My suspicion therefore is that when the rocket stage initially reentered in perigee at 12:39 UTC and started to ablate and break up, a single massive/solid part survived this perigee and continued for half a revolution, before finally reentering at 13:43 UTC.

(alternatively, you could think of this as one reentry with a very, very long stretched debris strewnfield)

The longer surviving part might well be the dummy payload of this experimental launch, which remained attached to the ZQ-3 upper stage but might have separated from the upper stage during the 12:39 UTC perigee/reentry (edit: or the previous perigee pass, see post update below). If this dummy payload was a solid weight, meaning it had a much larger mass-relative-to-area (a lower area-to-mass ratio) than the rest of the rocket stage, it might have survived and come out of perigee again, while the actual upper stage meanwhile did not survive this perigee and reentered in the first spot at 12:39 UTC. The dummy payload then finally came down in the second spot at 13:43 UTC.

Although a different situation, it reminds me a bit of a confusing case from 2014, the reentry of a Russian Kobalt-M spy satellite (on which I also wrote under the title "You Only Die Twice" at the time, a blogpost which you can read here). The latter consisted of the uncontrolled reentry of shed parts over the USA, preceded by a controlled reentry of the film return capsule over Russia a few hours earlier. So a different situation, but equally confusing.

 

UPDATE  2 Feb 2026

I further investigated the hypothesis of a solid piece coming off the upper stage and surviving the initial 12:39 UTC reentry, by means of running trial-and-error models in Tudat, integrating the R/B to a certain time/altitude and taking the State Vector from that integration with a new mass and area to see if I could get a piece to survive to 13:43 UTC. I modelled for solid steel spheres (from the initial idea of a solid mass representing the dummy payload).

I have trouble to get anything surviving assuming it came off during or just before the 12:39 UTC first TIP. In order to create something that survives untill 13:43 UTC, I needed to go to a mass of 2500 kg coming off as much as half an hour before the 12:39 first TIP, at 129 km altitude: but then the remaining mass for the R/B without dummy payload does not have the R/B itself reenter at 12:39 UTC.

(added note: within error margins of the model, it however still might be possible) 

I do get a result that neatly matches both TIP's however, if I detach a small mass (only ~7.9 kg!) during the previous perigee pass, at about 11:25 UTC at an altitude of 109.5 km. This mass (with a corresponding diameter of about 12.4 cm for a solid steel object) in our Tudat model survives this perigee and the next and reenters at nominally 13:43 UTC at about 5 S, 62 E, in close agreement with the time and location of the second TIP. The R/B minus shed mass reenters earlier, around 12:39 UTC, the time of the first TIP. 

So, in summary of this scenario (see also map below):

Event I:  a ~7.9 kg. ~12.4 cm solid object detaches from the ZQ-3 R/B in perigee at 11:25 UTC;

Event II: the remaining ZQ-3 R/B reenters around 12:39 UTC at next perigee at location of TIP a;

Event III: the detached solid 7.9 kg object survives and reenters at 13:43 UTC at location of TIP b.

The object in question would however be too small to be a dummy payload (but could be a part of it) and I also wonder whether it is big enough to create a clear reentry fireball (clear enough to be seen from Space by SBIRS). So I am not entirely convinced this simulation solves the matter.

Click map to enlarge

(facetious added note: I am suddenly having hilarious visions of the dummy payload being a solid steel bobble-head statue of the Chinese LandSpace CEO, with the head coming off....)

[MULTIPLE UPDATES] Possible Space Debris found near Newman, Australia on Oct 18, might be Jielong 3 upper stage remains

click map to enlarge

On 18 October 2025 near 14:00 local time (= 18 October ~6:00 UTC), a strange object was found on or near a dirtroad in the outback of  the Pilbara region in Western Australia. The object, suspected to be space debris, was found some 30 km east of the small mining town of Newman, as reported by ABC.

The object (photo's in the ABC report) resembles a COPV (Composite-Overwrapped Pressure Vessel), a type of space debris that often survives reentry. It reportedly was burning when found (this seems to be visible in the first photograph in the ABC report), which is unusual and against expectations for space debris. Nevertheless, the character of the object and a good match of the find location to a reentry on 18 October does persuade me to conclude that this is space debris indeed.

A possible candidate for the origin of this apparent space debris is a Chinese Jielong 3 upper stage, catnr. 61237, COSPAR 2024-173L. This object reentered on October 18, although (again! See this recent reentry) no TIP was issued by CSpOC.

I identified the object (note: so independently did Ravi Jagtiani) by assuming the report it was burning, although odd, is true, indicating a very recent impact. Using the latest orbital catalogue I first checked which objects were in orbits below 250 km on October 17-18, i.e. close to reentry, and next I ran a SatEvo analysis on this set to further cull it down to objects that should have been near reentry around that time. Starlink satellites could be excluded given the character of the debris. This left only a handfull of candidates. Of these, only one was in an orbit that would match passing close to Newman in the early hours of October 18: the mentioned Chinese Jielong 3 stage in a 97.6 degree inclined polar orbit. Using a standard SGP4 propagation as a first check, the ground-track would pass some 20-30 km east of Newman around 4:40 UTC on October 18. The rocket stage approached from the north-northeast moving towards the south-southwest.

The last available orbit for 2024-173L is for epoch 25291.03873492 (18 Oct 00:55 UTC), a few hours before the Newman object was found. Using that orbit as a starting point and deploying the reentry model we recently created in the open source Delft University of Technology Astrodynamics Toolkit (Tudat), I tried whether I could get a reentry trajectory to end ~30 km east of Newman. 

Not much information is known about the Jielong 3 components in terms of size and mass: therefore, estimates for size and mass of the upper stage had to be used. I assumed a size of about 1.5 x 1.5 meter (cf Jonathan McDowell's catalogue) and then by trail-and-error varied the mass to get an impact point as close to 30 km due east of Newman as possible.

An impact point situated directly ~30 km east of Newman results when I use a mass of ~301 kg, which seems a reasonable value for a small solid fuel upper stage build from composite. The two maps below show the Tudat modelled reentry trajectory that results from a 2.5 m² drag surface and 301 kg mass, with impact just after 4:40 UTC on 18 October (see also update II at the bottom of this post):

 

click map to enlarge

 

click map to enlarge

The modelled impact time is 1 to1.5 hours before the object was reportedly found. 

So it looks like the Jielong 3 upper stage 2024-173L is a good candidate for the origin of the possible space debris object found near Newman on October 18. Rather than a COPV from the stage, it could actually be (a significant part of) the upper stage itself, given the large size that the photo's suggest (and also given that the Jielong 3 upper stage is reportedly a solid fuel stage).

As we have seen with a number of recent reentries, CSpOC alas did not provide a TIP for this object (TIP = "Time of Impact Prediction", the reentry prediction by the CSpOC reentry model). They did however release an administrative "decay message" for 2024-173L for October 18 just after the reentry, indicating that it did reenter that day.

 

UPDATE I, 21 Oct 2025 00:20 UTC:

An EU-SST reentry analysis for the Jielong 3 upper stage 2024-173L is in good agreement with my Tudat analysis.

 

UPDATE II, 21 Oct 2025 15:45 UTC:

Using Tudat, I tried to fit the orbital evolution (based on US tracking data) for 2024-173L from July 1, 2025 to October 15, 2025 to the Tudat model, playing with mass and drag area, to get at empirical values for mass and drag area. One of the solutions that fits well is a mass of 300 kg and drag area of 2.2 m² , which is close to the values I used to get it to reenter near Newman as described earlier in this blogpost. 

click diagram to enlarge

With a 300 kg mass and 2.2 m² drag area, the Tudat reentry model has it nominally surviving untill ~5:17 UTC ± 65 min, nominally reentering half an orbital revolution after passing Newman: but passing Newman actually is well within the uncertainty window of this reeentry prediction (the blue line on the map shows the trajectory over the uncertainty window):

 

click map to enlarge

In other words: this too suggests that the object found near Newman could be (a part of) the Jielong 3 upper stage 2024-173L.

 

UPDATE III, 31 Oct 2025: 

A lone TIP has suddenly been issued for 2024-173L by CSpOC today: 18 Oct 2025 4:38 ± 1m UTC near nominally 18.1 S 121.2 E.  

This conforms well to the space debris being found in Newman, as the time and location likely are based (given the ± 1 minute uncertainty) on a satellite observation of the fireball, i.e. on the location at an altitude of 80-100 km. I have plotted the position in the map below, that also depicts our Tudat reentry trajectory with associated times.

 

click map to enlarge

[UPDATED] Identifying a reentry over the Canary Islands on 16 October as the reentry of the Chinese satellite Xinjishu Yanzheng 7 (XJY-7)

click to enlarge

In the early local morning of 16 October 2025 around 1:56 UTC, a spectacular phenomena appeared in the sky over Tenerife in the Canary Islands. A bright, slow, fragmenting fireball moved from south to north over the sky. Sonic booms were heard and registered by several seismic stations on Tenerife. The event clearly was a reentry of artificial space debris. For footage, see here and here. The all-sky image on the left above is from the Izana Atmospheric Research Center on Tenerife (the plotted sky map on the right is by me, for comparison, see discussion below).

I was alerted to the event by my Spanish colleague Josep Trigo (ICE-CSIC/IEEC) in the morning of October 16, who asked if I could identify which object was reentering here. A check on the CSpOC portal Space-Track did not yield a TIP that would match - as it turns out, the object in question never received a TIP, which is odd as it was heavy and large, as we will see.

So in order to identify it, I had to do some additional research. I selected all orbits from the orbital catalogue with perigee below 200 km. Next, I used SatEvo software to see which of these orbits would have a predicted reentry on October 15-16. From the handfull of candidates left, I next checked which of them would be over the Canary Islands near the time of the event (1:56 - 1:57 UTC on 16 October 2025). One object stood out - and it was one for which no TIP had been issued: the Chinese satellite Xinjishu Yanzheng 7 (XJY-7, 2020-102C), launched in 2020.

All sky imagery showing the reentry trail in the sky against a starry background had meanwhile been published on Twitter by the Izana Atmospheric Research Center on Tenerife. The general location of the trail amidst the stars in the sky and the direction of movement matched those expected for XJY-7 well. It was clear we had found our culprit.

Not much is known about XJY-7. Jonathan McDowell lists bus dimensions of about 3 x 5 x 9 meter and a dry mass near 3000 kg for this object in his catalogue. ESA's DISCOS lists similar dimensions but a mass of 5000 kg (perhaps a wet mass).

The last available orbit for XJY-7 was for epoch 25288.77158679, or 15 October 18:31 UTC, some 7h 25m before the event. To investigate further, I used the reentry model that my colleague Dominic Dirkx and I made some time ago (see earlier posts) in the Open Source Delft University of Technology Astrodynamics Toolkit (Tudat) to see whether I, with trial-and-error, could get a reentry model for XJY-7 to end over the Canary Islands. As it turns out, I could, for a mass of 2717 kg (close to 3 tons) and a drag area of 37.44 m² (the maximum drag surface listed by DISCOS), using past and current space weather.

The map below shows the resulting reentry groundtrack and times for this model integration. Note that the model does not take fragmentation and mass loss into account, so it has limitations and is an approximation only. I had the model terminate at 20 km altitude.

The figure below the map, compares the sky trajectory resulting from this model for the location of the Izana Atmospheric Research Center, to that registered by the all sky camera at Izana. They match well.

Click map to enlarge

 

click to enlarge

 

It is curious that no TIP was issued for this reentry by CSpOC. This was a large heavy object: 3 x 5 x 9 meter and 3 tons in mass. CSpOC apparently overlooked this reentry - a few hours post reentry, they however did add an administrative "decay message" for October 16 to the catalogue for this object, but without any further details. 

We recently have seen a complete lack of TIP's being issued for any object, for over a month. Only recently, CSpOC resumed issuing TIP's. CSpOC is currently clearly having some issues with their system. Luckily, we were nevertheless able to identify the object responsible for this spectacular reentry, by some diligent analysis.

 

UPDATE 17 Oct 2025  22:00 UTC:

Click map to enlarge (map updated to correct typo)

I played a little bit more with the reentry model, tinkering the area to mass ratio to get an even better fit to the sky trajectory as seen from the Izana camera station. Here is an updated plot of the modelled sky trajectory (numbers next to trajectory are atmospheric altitudes in km according to the simulation):

A mass of 2715.5 kg creates a very good fit, except for the end of the trail. That is no surprise: the reentry model is a simple model without mass loss and fragmentation, while in reality there is massive mass loss and fragmentation (meaning: changing area to mass ratio's for various fragments). When solid parts survive, heavy relative to their size, these have a lower area to mass ratio meaning they lose altitude less quickly.

Here is the improved model trajectory overlayed on the Izana camera image:

Click image to enlarge

(I thank Josep Trigo (ICE-CSIC/IEEC) and the Spanish SPMN for data and discussions)

A Chinese ICBM test launch at full range, into the central Pacific, on September 25

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

In a surprise move, China conducted a (for them) unusual ICBM test launch on September 25, 2024. They launched an ICBM at full range, targetting an RV splash-down area in the central Pacific.

According to China the missile, with a "dummy warhead", was launched at 00:44 UTC (Sept 25) "to the high seas in the Pacific Ocean". Several countries (including the US, Japan) were reportedly informed before the test, and Navigational Warnings were issued for the RV impact area and missile stage splashdown areas two days before the test.

The Navigational Warnings and NOTAM's indicate that the missile was launched from the northern part of Hainan Island, with RV splashdown near 10.4 S, 146.5 W near French Polynesia, some 700 km west of Nuku Hiva and 875 km northeast of Bora Bora. The indicated range flown by the ICBM was about 11 700 km.

I have plotted the relevant hazard areas from the Navigational Warnings (HYDROPAC 3118/24, HYDROPAC 3121/24) and a NOTAM (A3054/24) with a matching reconstructed ballistic flight path on the map below, while the two illustrations in top of this post show the approximate trajectory in 3D (assuming apogee at 1200 km and launch on the Hainan coast).

click map to enlarge

Given the launch from Hainan, it was likely a road-mobile ICBM (perhaps a DF-31 or DF-41 [UPDATE: it was a road-mobile DF-31A or AG, see update at bottom of post]) launched from a TEL. The exact launch location is still unclear at the moment. The location of the hazard areas (especially that from NOTAM A3054/24) seem to rule out launch from the Wenchang Space Launch Complex, as they rather point to slightly more north on Hainan.

China usually test launches its ICBM's over land, on lofted trajectories (e.g. see this 2019 blog post). The last time they launched one at full range on a non-lofted trajectory into the Pacific was 44 years ago, in 1980. So this launch is far from a standard test.

In addition to being an ICBM non-lofted test, the test could perhaps also have been for the purpose of testing China's TJS/Huoyan early warning satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

Relevant Navigational Warnings and NOTAM:

231141Z SEP 24
HYDROPAC 3118/24(91,93).
PHILIPPINE SEA.
PHILIPPINES.
DNC 23.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS
   242200Z TO 250400Z SEP IN AREAS BOUND BY:
   A. 19-46.00N 118-15.00E, 19-36.00N 119-48.00E,
      18-33.00N 119-41.00E, 18-44.00N 118-08.00E.
   B. 19-06.00N 124-41.00E, 18-57.00N 125-42.00E,
      18-11.00N 125-36.00E, 18-21.00N 124-34.00E.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 250500Z SEP 24.


231521Z SEP 24
HYDROPAC 3121/24(83).
SOUTH PACIFIC.
DNC 06.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS
   242200Z TO 250400Z SEP IN AREA BOUND BY
   09-37.00S 147-14.00W, 10-18.00S 145-31.00W,
   11-08.00S 145-44.00W, 10-27.00S 147-29.00W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 250500Z SEP 24.


A3054/24 NOTAMN
Q) ZGZU/QRDCA/IV/BO/W/000/999/1952N11145E018
A) ZGZU B) 2409250020 C) 2409250230
E) A TEMPORARY DANGER AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY:
N200247E1113156-N200222E1120118-N194011E1120042-N194142E1113027,BAC
K TO START.
VERTICAL LIMITS:SFC-UNL.
F) SFC G) UNL

 

There are three more NOTAM's that correspond to the areas from the Navigational Warnings. (HT to Cosmic Penguin on Twitter for the NOTAM).

 

UPDATE 26 Sep 2024:

China has published images of the launch. It shows a launch from a TEL, with a missile and TEL consistent with a DF-31A or AG.

Image: PLA

The Chinese robotic Space Plane 3 and Object G: proximity operations [MULTIPLE UPDATES]

(blogpost updated on June 6, June 14, June 17 and June 23, 2024. Last update at bottom)

 

The video above shows 2023-195A, the third mission of China's experimental spaceplane (aka "PRC Test Spacecraft", aka "Reusable Test Vehicle") and "Object G" (2023-195G), an object it ejected late May 2024. 

The video was taken  from Leiden, the Netherlands, in evening twilight of June 8, 2024, using a WATEC 902H2 Supreme camera and Samyang 1.2/85 mm lens. 

Object G is the faint object in front, the brighter object is the Space Plane.

I had also observed both objects a day earlier, on the evening of June 7, in deep twilight. Below is a frame stack from that June 7 observation: object G is the fainter of the two streaks and was just in front of the Spaceplane:

Object G was first catalogued on May 25. My analysis shows that it was ejected from the Spaceplane on May 24 near 18:40 UTC, during a pass over China. 

Directly after ejecting it, the spaceplane made a manoeuver, raising its orbit by about 1 kilometer. This likely was an avoidance manoeuver, i.e. a manoeuver to avoid hitting the object it just ejected.

In the first few days after ejection, the 18th STS appears to have  confused both objects: orbital data for object G and the spaceplane between epoch 24146.6 and 24148.9 have been switched, and what is labelled as "PRC Test Spacecraft 3" in the catalogue during this period is actually Object G, and vice versa.

Below are two diagram of the apogee and perigee evolution for both objects: one "as is" following the catalogue identities: and a second one where I have corrected the identities of both objects during the period they were switched:

click diagram to enlarge

click diagram to enlarge

Looking at the orbital behaviour of both objects, it appears that Object G does not noticably manoeuver. Its parent the spaceplane did: between June 5 and June 7, starting eleven days after it ejected Object G, the space plane made a series of (phasing) manoeuvers, as can be seen in the diagram above. It first lowered its orbit, and then raised it again a day later. The result is an orbit at similar altitude and orbital period as Object G, but slightly more eccentric.

Another effect of those manoeuvers was that it brought the spaceplane and Object G in close spatial proximity again, with a separation of only a few kilometers (as can be seen in the video imagery in top of the post, taken when both objects were some 7-8 km apart). It is possible that the spaceplane did briefly retrieve Object G or attempted to do so, and then let it go again, but this cannot be unequivocally confirmed from the orbital data. Some combinations of the orbital data for epoch 24160 do suggest that a potential very close approach at kilometer level or even less might have happened on 8 June near 14-15h UTC. The rapid manoeuvering evident from the clear orbital changes in successive elsets from June 8-9 makes it however difficult to validate true distances and exact times involved.

It is clear however that between June 5 and 7, the spaceplane manoeuvered with the intent to do a proximity operation with Object G on June 8, bringing the two objects to within a few kilometers of each other.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the spaceplane will periodically adjust its orbit to remain in the vicinity of Object G. [see update at bottom of post!]

The spaceplane was launched from Jiuquan with a Long March 2F rocket on 14 December 2023, initially into a 348 x 332 km, 50.0 degree inclined orbit. On January 5, it made a small orbit raise to 359 x 331 km. On 19 January 2024, it significantly raised its orbit to 597 x 334 km. On 26 January 2024, it circularized its orbit to 609 x 602 km (see diagram of orbital evolution below). On May 24, it spawned Object G.

click diagram to enlarge

 

The spacecraft is a robotic spaceplane capable of landing on a runway after deorbit, and China's answer to the US X-37B OTV spaceplane. It is launched on a rocket from Jiuquan, and after spending time on orbit, it lands again on a 5-km long runway near Lop Nur in the Taklamakan desert (see Sentinel satellite image below). 

 

Lop Nur runway (Sentinel 2B image). Click to enlarge

The current mission is the third mission of this type of spacecraft: it did a short 2-day mission in August September 2020, and a much longer 276-day mission between August 2022 and May 2023. The current mission has been on-orbit for 181 days (status June 12, 2024).

 

UPDATE 14 June 2024

On June 11 near 9 UTC and June 12 near 10 UTC, the spaceplane again made phasing manoeuvers, followed by a series of smaller orbit adjustments that have now brought apogee and perigee altitudes (and with that eccentricity and orbital period) very close to those for Object G.

The June 11 and 12 manoeuvers caused another very close approach (to a km or less), i.e. another proximity operation, between the spaceplane and Object G on June 12 near 13 UTC.

click diagram to enlarge

UPDATE 17 June 2024

The spaceplane keeps manoeuvering for new proximity operations with object G. A new close approach (a kilometer or less) was made on June 14 near 10:08 UTC, a next one might have happened on June 16 near 5:40 UTC, and another one might occur within hours of posting this update, on June 17 near 13:12 UTC.

 

click diagram to enlarge

UPDATE 23 June 2024

While the dates are generally reliable, the exact approach times I earlier listed might on hindsight not always be that accurate (hence why I crossed them out in this post update). The spaceplane likely frequently made orbit adjustments, and not all of those are well captured by the available tracking data. The approach times calculated depend clearly on which set of orbits you take, even for epochs close together in time.

The orbital periods of both objects - spaceplane and object G - are now very similar, and as a result they stay in each others vicinity, at a general distance of about 100 km at the time of writing (June 23), a distance which is very slowly increasing over time. The spaceplane's orbit is slightly more eccentric than that of object G.

click diagram to enlarge

 

There is an interesting pattern in the inclination of the object G orbit data, but I am not certain whether it is real or an artefact. There are minute  'jumps' in the inclination of object G that appear to coincide with dates of close approaches by the spaceplane. Given the earlier initial confusion between the object A and G identities, I remain cautious on whether or not these are significant.