China’s experimental reusable Shenlong (Dragon) spacecraft returned to Earth on September 6, completing its third orbital mission. The “craft” took off on December 14, 2023, and its flight lasted 268 days, comparable to the second mission (276 days). Dragon’s first flight in 2020 lasted just two days.

China’s state news agency Xinhua gave a brief summary of Shenlong’s return to Earth, without providing any images or information about the flight mission or landing site.

China launched Dragon for the third time from Jiuquan Space Center on December 14, aboard a Long March 2F rocket. This was two weeks before the American spacecraft X-37B was launched aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. The Chinese spacecraft is believed to be a counterpart to the X-37B.

Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell calculated and assumed that the spacecraft must have landed in the dry Lobnor Lake region in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China.

Observations of the spacecraft’s maneuvers suggested that during its mission, Shenlong launched unknown objects (probably special satellites or pieces of equipment) into orbit and then conducted rendezvous operations with them. Perhaps these were operations aimed at repairing and servicing satellites or practicing space actions against orbital vehicles of a potential enemy.