China has released one of its spaceplanes into our skies once again.
The top-secret spacecraft, dubbed Shenlong, was released on December 14 - but no one really knows why.
It's the spaceship's third mission into space and, in regards to why its up there, Chinese media has given quite a vague explanation.
Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported: "The test spacecraft will operate in orbit for a period of time and then return to a scheduled landing site in China.
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"During this period, reusable technology verification and space science experiments will be carried out as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space."
They failed to note that the spacecraft would also release six mysterious objects that would follow it around.
The objects - which look similar to drones - were released from the ship four days into the mission and are now being tracked by several organizations.
The additional six devices were spotted by amateur astronomer and satellite tracker Scott Tilley, who took to X to share his findings.
According to Tilley, the six 'mysterious wingmen' appear to be emitting data.
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Labelling the airborne objects 'A' through to 'F', he told Space.com: "OBJECT A's or nearby emission is reminiscent of earlier Chinese space plane 'wingman' emissions in the sense the signal is modulated with a limited amount of data.
"There is speculation that the emission from OBJECT A may be from an object close to it, but this is speculation not based on any evidence I'm aware of."
Amateur radio operator Daniel Estévez has since looked into the signal being emitted and says it's 'clear' that it 'doesn't have much data in it', as per IFLScience.
What the signals contain remains unclear, but Tilley says that the mysterious objects seem to the strongest signals while passing over North America.
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"I’m seeing a pattern in its radio emissions while over me and it appears to favor low-elevation western passes," he explained to the South China Morning Post.
"This could indicate a clandestine ground station on the west coast of North America or on a ship off the coast."
This is purely speculation, however.
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It's said to be the third time that China's secretive spaceplane has released objects in orbit over its three missions.
Shenlong has been launched three times in three years.
Previous objects released by the spaceplane were speculated to be service modules, test articles for practicing placing payloads into orbit.
It was also suggested that they were small satellites used to monitor the spaceplane.
Topics: World News, News, Technology, Space, China
