Back in 2007, this official Chinese photograph made a splash –
It should come as no surprise that the Chinese have a spaceplane program, and the US can only blame ourselves. The father of the Chinese space program, Tsien Hsue-shen, worked in the US until he was exiled in the Red Scares of the 1950’s.
In 2000, the Chinese showed this model. It looks to be a Chinese version of the European Hermes manned spaceplane. In the years since 2000 the world has made significant advances in UAV-technology. Is it possible that the original manned model has been replaced by a UAV version? Or did the Chinese just steal the X-37B design given how closely the new spaceplane looks like an X-37B?
Either way, the time may be closer than we think when there are battles in space. The real question may be will it be manned or unmanned craft?
