[6][7] The state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported in 2017 that China planned to launch a reusable spacecraft in 2020 designed to "fly into the sky like an aircraft".
[8][9][10] Chinese media reported that "the test spacecraft will be in orbit for a period of time before returning to the domestic scheduled landing site.
[13][7] According to observers Marco Langbroek and Jonathan McDowell, the spacecraft's landing site was an airbase located at Lop Nur, China.
[14] Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics speculated that one of the dots visible on the image of the runway was the Chinese spaceplane.
The only information available about the program is the photos taken from the ground by an amateur in late July 2024,[20][22][23] revealing structures similar to solar panels or antennas.
The payload fairings used, having been photographed after their fall to the ground, showed extensions that could house wings and help constrain the size and wingspan of the craft.
[28] When asked to speculate on the spaceplane's role Brian Weeden, director of program planning for the Secure World Foundation said, "It's a great question.