Chinese spaceplane marks 10 days in orbit

A reusable Chinese spacecraft that may resemble the U.S. military’s X-37B spaceplane has logged 10 days in orbit since its Aug. 4 launch, but what it’s doing remains a mystery. The spacecraft launched from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert on top of a Chinese Long March 2F rocket around 1600 GMT (12 p.m. EDT) on Aug. 4, flying inside the launcher’s aerodynamic nose cone. The liquid-fueled rocket, which is typically used to launch astronaut crews into orbit, deployed the mysterious Chinese spacecraft into an orbit ranging between 215 miles and 368 miles (346-by-593 kilometers) in altitude with an inclination of 50 degrees to the equator. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Aug 17)