China’s secretive space plane has returned to Earth. Its mission? Unknown

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A Chinese “reusable experimental spacecraft” believed to be the country’s secretive space plane has landed back on Earth after more than eight months in orbit – the latest development in a largely covert race between the United States and China to hone such technology.

China’s spacecraft blasted into orbit last December – two weeks ahead of the latest launch of the US military’s own Boeing X-37B uncrewed space plane – on the third known orbital mission of such a Chinese spacecraft.

Some 268 days later, the spacecraft returned to an unnamed landing site, according to a brief September 6 announcement from state news agency Xinhua, which declared its test mission a “complete success.”

China’s development of the vehicle, about which little is publicly known, comes after recent years of striving to catch up to the US, long the world’s preeminent space power, for dominance in orbit and beyond.

Here’s what we know – and don’t – about China’s space plane.

What is a space plane – and isn’t this old technology?

The term “space plane” often evokes NASA’s Space Shuttle, which flew 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, carrying astronauts into orbit and helping to construct the International Space Station. It might also recall the Soviet Union’s ill-fated Buran space shuttle, which completed one successful uncrewed flight in 1988 before being discontinued.

But the newer planes currently being tested in orbit by the US and China are believed to be smaller than the shuttle and uncrewed. The US X-37B is operated by the military, while China has not said whether the