The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency released a report assessing adversary space threats, featuring a clearer image of China’s reusable spaceplane captured by Maxar in 2024. The unclassified assessment details expanding anti-satellite capabilities, space-based laser weapon risks, and ongoing orbital missions by Beijing and Moscow.
The Defense Intelligence Agency published its latest unclassified threat assessment, titled Challenges to Security in Space, detailing military space strategies and capabilities of adversary nations. Current to July 2026, the report highlights the expanding inventories of dual-use orbital hardware and the growing risk of conflict extending directly into Earth’s upper atmosphere.
then executed a rerendezvous with the subsat on Sep 10 and a recapture on Sep 13. This analysis is based on USSF GP data. USSF also cataloged an additional object 24J on about Sep 10, but with no orbit data; I think this was a mistake and is a duplicate of object 24H.
Maxar Image Captures Details of China’s Shenlong Spaceplane
Buried inside the DIA report on page 53 is an unclassified, higher-resolution orbital photograph taken by Maxar Technologies in 2024. The image reveals the underside of China’s secretive reusable space vehicle, widely known as Shenlong, with its service module attached and solar arrays deployed from the rear. The design bears a striking resemblance to the uncrewed X-37B space planes operated by the U.S. Space Force. This uncrewed reusable vehicle operates in low Earth orbit, achieving speeds of 17,426 mph with dimensions measuring over 29 feet long and a nearly 15-foot-long wingspan.
Intelligence officials report that China has conducted four separate orbital missions with its experimental spaceplane since September 2020. The first prototype launched aboard a Long March 2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert, remaining in orbit for two days before returning to Earth. Subsequent flights demonstrated drastically extended durations. A second mission launched in August 2022 and lasted 276 days, during which the vehicle maneuvered near a companion satellite at around one kilometer separation before approaching within 100 meters to conduct station-keeping and potential rendezvous operations. A fourth mission began with a launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on February 7, 2026.
Behold: The US Defense Intelligence Agency has released a report on challenges to security in space, including an NEI image of China’s spaceplane from Maxar, taken in 2024. pic.twitter.com/F3msSwoFph
The DIA report notes that Beijing also maintains the state-run China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Tengyun design unveiled in 2016 as part of a two-stage-to-orbit system relying on a mothership aircraft. Meanwhile, the U.S. Space Force launched its eighth classified flight of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle on August 21, 2025, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
Directed-Energy Weapons and Counterspace Threats
Beyond orbital spaceplanes, the intelligence assessment outlines rapid advancements in counterspace technology from emerging space powers like Iran and North Korea alongside principal actors China and Russia. The DIA reports that the Chinese military likely considers directed-energy weapons ideal for permanently or temporarily disabling adversarial satellites.
By the late 2020s, China may field space-based directed energy systems and higher-powered ground-based directed energy systems capable of threatening satellites in higher orbits.
Defense Intelligence Agency, via Ars Technica
State-owned media in Beijing dismissed the intelligence warnings as groundless alarmism. Chinese military affairs expert Song Zhongping told Global Times that Washington is attempting to justify its own orbital military buildup, pointing to the aspirational space-based Golden Dome missile defense initiative and acknowledged deployments of U.S. weapons in space. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed that the Pentagon has fielded weapons in space, establishing the United States as the first nation to acknowledge possession of orbital weapons, while the U.S. Space Force maintains a constellation of inspector satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
Russia Targets Satellites with Nuclear and Conventional Weapons
The report also details Russian counterspace programs, noting ambitions to deploy nuclear weapons in orbit alongside conventional systems like the Nivelir project, which is designed to fire projectiles from one satellite to smash into another following a simulated attack in 2020. Intelligence officials highlighted an incident where Russian spacecraft Kosmos 2612 deliberately maneuvered to approach a U.S.-registered radar imaging satellite, while a separate fleet of small Russian satellites launched in April moved within tens of meters of a commercial radar remote sensing spacecraft owned by ICEYE that provides reconnaissance imagery to Ukraine.
Now then — this could be something exceptional. The rumours are that inside this exceptional payload fairing atop a CZ-2F is a CASC spaceplane, launching from Jiuquan Friday. Source: 俊了个锅 via 林晓弈。 https://t.co/qs6VRfzQoP https://t.co/OESvzyDyEl pic.twitter.com/ZPnpwAIfyO
The Department of Defense Intelligence Agency report also noted Beijing’s concerns regarding the growing number of SpaceX Starlink satellites during a potential war, prompting exploration of neutralization methods. Russian Academy of Sciences academician Sergey Glazyev and oligarch Konstantin Malofeev have similarly proposed disabling Starlink through electronic jamming, physical destruction, space debris creation, or a space-based nuclear explosion.
Orbital congestion further complicates security across the domain. The Secure World Foundation’s 2026 assessment tallied 6,904 catalogued debris objects generated by anti-satellite testing conducted by the United States, Russia, China, and India, of which 2,773 remained in orbit at the time of its analysis.
Since its launch on 4 August 2022, we observed multiple large maneuvers raising the object’s altitude — as well as repeated deployments, formation flying, and docking of a sub-satellite Object J (NORAD ID 54218). pic.twitter.com/ORVgSXYKmJ
More on low Earth orbit
This event tested our object tracking and maneuver detection and characterization capabilities, proving that we can provide critical intelligence on the behaviors and activities of objects in #LEO thanks to our continuous, real-time operations. pic.twitter.com/WDP06ffBSv
This is interesting, according to several posts, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has released a report on emerging challenges to security in space, including this image of China’s "Shenlong" spaceplane.(Via Maxar, taken in 2024) pic.twitter.com/yDKpx6h1KE
DIA Releases Clearest Image of China’s Reusable Spaceplane with Service Module Attached The DIA report reviews the three missions flown between 2020 and 2023, highlighting reported rendezvous and proximity operations during the second and third flights, before China launched…