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China's Spaceplane Discovers That Low Orbit Is a Poor Place for Curtains
· New York time
China's secretive spaceplane is visible to observers in low-Earth orbit, despite the secrecy surrounding its mission. Separately, a US Defense Intelligence Agency threat assessment suggests China may soon place directed-energy weapons in space. The two developments illustrate different aspects of space competition. An object in orbit can be tracked even when its operator keeps details of its purpose private. The agency's assessment, meanwhile, is a prediction about a possible future capability, not confirmation that such weapons are already deployed. For US planners, both tracking spacecraft and assessing emerging capabilities are part of understanding activity in orbit. For anyone hoping secrecy makes a spacecraft invisible, the physics is less accommodating. A government can classify a mission, but it cannot classify the fact that an object is passing overhead.
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