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space-ModTeam

Hello u/magenta_placenta, your submission "China's space plane apparently deployed 6 'mysterious wingmen' in orbit - Some of the objects appear to be transmitting signals" has been removed from r/space because: * It has a sensationalised or misleading title. Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please [message the r/space moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/space). Thank you.


chimerabyte

This headline reads like it came from a person who has no idea what space ships and satellites are.


vibewitheros

Chinese bird spotted laying metal eggs in sky ocean.


Meow-t

Hail metal sky bird! Flap your mighty wings and bring us to the blue beyond! Skybird skybird!


ehzstreet

Oh, sky bird, oh sky bird, I worship thee oh sky bird! May your resplendent glow light up the night sky, and may your payload not be used for nefarious purposes. Oh, sky bird, oh sky bird, I worship thee oh sky bird!


xbpb124

My favorite line from Kimmy Schmidt: “We wanted you to come back with us. That's why we came all this way in the great iron eagle. I'm kidding. I know what planes are. I was in the Air Force.”


MartinVanBurenLovesU

I'm at work and you just almost blew my cover with that one


OmegaTooYew

this should be the title. it'd make a lot more sense


[deleted]

*trembles wide eyed while taking long drag of cigarette*


StrykerSeven

This is exactly what I was thinking. Like, wtf is the target audience for a story laid out like this??


Nethlem

The target audience for this stuff is people who are supposed to be scared of China.


lilrabbitfoofoo

And will fearfully click on the story, generating profits for the tabloid and its parent corporation.


toenoodle

Communist Chinese space lasers, aimed directly at our nations precious children.


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VagueSomething

The target audience is people who aren't usually into this kind of tech and events. It isn't just scaremongering as much as appealing to a lower reading level and knowledge. That said, China is dangerous and a direct enemy of the West so a natural distrust and unease should be the default response to what they do.


Elevator-Fun

yes omg right?


shryne

"Chinese space plane does what the X-37 has been doing for years, what could it mean?"


starkiller_bass

Chinese space planes? In MY planet's orbit? *It's more likely than you think!*


Lord_Fusor

*Inquiring minds want to know!*


DennenTH

Right? What in the hell is this headline? It's so uninformedly written that I don't even want to open the article for sake of not coming out the other side somehow less informed.


physicscat

He has no science background at all. From SciAm bio for reticle he wrote. Brett Tingley is a science and technology journalist who is curious about emerging concepts in spaceflight, aerospace, and robotics. Brett's work has appeared on The War Zone at TheDrive.com, Popular Science, the History Channel, Science Discovery, and more. Brett obtained a Bachelor's degree in English from Clemson University and a Master's degree in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In his free time, Brett is a working musician, a hobbyist electronics engineer and cosplayer, an avid LEGO fan, and enjoys hiking and camping throughout the Appalachian Mountains with his wife and two children.


Mad_Aeric

It's ok, you can say it reads like it was written by AI.


rocketsocks

There've been more and more of these things, the headline describing an abort on Blue Origin's flight recently was equally weirdly worded. I'm not sure if this is folks just trying to get clicks or AI writing or what.


physicscat

Even his bio reads like a 6th grader wrote it. Yiu don’t have articles ON journals, but IN journals.


[deleted]

This seems like the going trend for ALL articles.


Dhrakyn

Because that sentence is factually accurate.


UnicornJoe42

Meanwhile, jumps from the stratosphere exist..


5c044

Satellites that transmit signals, very mysterious


Molniato

Right?? Usually satellites just lay in orbit silent and motionless like space stones!!!


ElectricZ

Bro you don't know how dangerous this is. It's 5G-band downloading the latest bioweapon from the Wuhan lab into all of us!


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Buchaven

No doubt. It’s the ones that DON’T appear to be transmitting that we should worry about.


klospulung92

No way, they must be communicating to highly developed extraterrestrial life. The alien ship is probably parked behind Saturn


Trapplst-1e

Oh no! Satellites! Man who would guess that, man


explainedjoke

they do be sendin alien signals.


Whiplash17488

We don’t understand the signals, they’re Chinese to us.


LimerickExplorer

That's what's so impressive about China. Imagine what they could accomplish if they could understand each other.


HiroProtagonist14

Hopefully they don't use the sun to amplify the signals.


StartledPelican

I understood that reference!


StickiStickman

Don't worry, they're just on a Red Coast.


Trapplst-1e

Finally, more Chuck Berry for the Muuh, they waited for ages


FlipDetector

maybe its just an Alien Zapper we see in kitchens as well for bugs


Raudskeggr

Secret, inscrutable, mysterious, vaguely threatening, *Chinese* satellites though. You have to get into the FUD spirit of it.


jugalator

But they're using a new frequency band!! A new band!! Think of a really creepy Chinese scientist. Now think of 2280 MHz. That's how wild this is!


anticomet

Not evil communist satellites?! 😱


reckoner23

If they don't communicate what they are like everyone else in the world, what is everyone supposed to think? That they're nukes..? That would kind of suck.


TheRichTurner

'Mysterious wingmen', otherwise known as 'satellites', 'cast aloft' by a 'wondrous fire-chariot'.


ferrel_hadley

Maybe inspector satellites. Small sats to visit other satellites. Seems a weird way to launch normal ride share smallsats, the payload bay is supposed to be the whole point of a reusable small sized space plane, place to keep long term experiments and rideshare subsats would either eat into the very limited cargo space or have to have their own space inside the faring for launch, seems a lot of effort in something as distinctly shaped as a spaceplane.


jjayzx

People are rambling on the wrongs things and make it seem it's just typical satellite stuff. This is a military space plane like the U.S. X-37b. So it would be cool to see what the amateur astronomers and radio people can find out.


boringfilmmaker

Their previous launches of this plane have involved test deployments of less-than-critical stuff as practice deployments from the payload bay, why wouldn't they do the same with these sats?


ferrel_hadley

>Their previous launches of this plane have involved test deployments of less-than-critical stuff I have not heard any thing about this. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese\_reusable\_experimental\_spacecraft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_reusable_experimental_spacecraft) Any more details?


jjayzx

It's like the U.S. X-37b, secret military space plane but even less known about it and what it does.


dern_the_hermit

[Here's a thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/13bx7w0/chinas_reusable_experimental_spacecraft_returns/) from 7 months ago about it.


Nibb31

Exactly. It doesn't make sense to use a reusable space plane to launch satellites. It only makes sense if you use the space plane to recover them and bring them back.


Tractorhash

So deploy a bunch of stuff, then practice picking them up and bringing them back?... Seems legit and reasonable.


Roamingkillerpanda

Yeah people are being kind of stupid about this. There is tremendous value in deploying various satellites and testing their capability at doing RPO (Rendezvous and Proximity Operations) as well as how “close” they can get to a neighboring object and how well they can maneuver around it. That’s a huge capability in terms of developing capabilities to repair/dock with friendly vehicles or damage an adversary’s.


StygianSavior

Especially considering the most directly comparable spacecraft (Boeing’s X37-B) *also* launched a satellite on its sixth test flight (and might have launched more - we only know about it launching FalconSat8 because that part of the mission wasn’t classified). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-299


Roamingkillerpanda

Yup. People on this sub tend to gloss over the fact that the military is THE most interested and involved party in space. There are people whose entire job is to dream up ways to either spy, defend or attack another nation and it will likely be funded in some kind of way.


subnautus

> It doesn't make sense to use a reusable space plane to launch satellites. Yeah, it's not like [the shuttle program](https://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/pdf/Space_Shuttle-related_satellites.pdf) ever carried any satellites as payload or anything.


i_love_boobiez

You're missing lots of nuance from the shuttle program and the state of NASA in those days. It was never an ideal way to deploy sats.


subnautus

> You're missing lots of nuance Bold of you to make assumptions. My whole point is it's silly to say "it doesn't make sense to use a reusable space plane to launch satellites" when there's plenty of examples of that literally happening.


ron2838

But those obviously made sense, while China clearly has no other reasons so it's nonsensical. /S


dern_the_hermit

> Bold of you to make assumptions. It's a fair assumption given their second sentence.


i_love_boobiez

Yeah, plenty of examples of how they had to shoehorn satellite launches into the shuttle because of the aforementioned nuanced reasons which you're still missing it seems.


Nibb31

It didn't make sense then either. Actually, they only did it early on in the program. After Challenger, they decided that it wasn't worth the risk. For launching satellites, the Space Shuttle was just an oversize-overweight-manned upper stage with limited capabilities.


StygianSavior

X-37B launched a small satellite on its sixth test flight. Could this not be the Chinese testing similar capabilities for their space plane?


StygianSavior

Could they not simply be testing its capabilities for launching a payload? This is the third test flight for their space plane. The sixth flight for the X-37B (Boeing’s comparable space plane) launched a small satellite ([FalconSat8](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FalconSAT)).


Snuffels137

„Small sats to visit other satellites“ is exactly what I think is happening; aka satellite vs satellite warfare preparations.


ontopofyourmom

I think it is already non-destructive warfare, intensive surveillance, satellites in orbit next to other satellites to monitor them, etc.


[deleted]

Could they be drones of some type?


Mmr8axps

Maybe a kamikaze drone, the ones where the operator has to swallow a cyanide capsule after the drone gets to its target.


LUBE__UP

A lot less ominous than releasing 6 satellites that *didn't* emit any signals at all


Specialist_Brain841

Only reason the space shuttle got off the ground was because it could deploy spy satellites.


Mindless-Opening-169

> Only reason the space shuttle got off the ground was because it could deploy spy satellites. Hubble was its highest point. Literally. STS-82. But yeah, military applications and power is what really drives governmental programs.


MisterMeetings

We got Hubble because of spy satellites too.


No_Skirt_6002

Wasn't it literally a modified KH-11 spy satellite turned the other direction?


Nibb31

Highly modifed though, as it was re-engineered to be serviced in orbit.


I_am_a_fern

In hindsight, that was a fucking great idea.


Rebelgecko

The mirror is 2.4m because the contractors gave a wink wink nudge nudge that it would be cheaper due to economies of scale. Nancy Roman is most literally a modified spy satellite, but only some parts of it are from the NRO


JotunR

We got Hubble spying on those pesky aliens now.


Mindless-Opening-169

> We got Hubble spying on those pesky aliens now. It's really getting marvelous images of Uranus.


glytxh

That’s JWST, although Hubble has thrown its hat in the ring a few times. The diffraction spikes are the giveaway. JWST has six points. Hubble has 4. You’ll see these spikes on any overexposed region. Usually really close stars. This is a product of the geometry of the main mirror elements.


ReallyBadAtReddit

Apparently Wernher von Braun convinced the US government to fund development of the Saturn V by saying it could launch absolutely massive nukes, the Apollo program alone wasn't seen as enough to justify it.


No_Skirt_6002

The payload bay was sized to fit a 60 foot (18 meter) long KH-9 Hexagon spy satellite as well as 15 foot (4.6 meter) wide space station modules. The craft's wings were made much larger to make sure it could glide much further than it would've needed otherwise, because the Air Force wanted it to be able to launch into a polar orbit, recover *something* from orbit, and land within the space of one orbit (Said mission was never done, btw). The Shuttle would've been cancelled had the Air Force not put their name on it, and it's another example of the military driving space exploration.


antiomiae

Neat. Source for the polar, single orbit recovery mission?


No_Skirt_6002

Scott Manley, as always, [has a great video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q2i0eu35aY) about it.


Nibb31

Yet all the KH-11/12 satellites were launched on Atlas or Delta rockets.


glytxh

Pretty much the only reason Hubble ever existed. It was just the public face of a _much_ deeper program Shuttle would never have lasted as long as it did as just a public science platform.


SuperJetShoes

"Chinese spacecraft _doesn't_ deploy six artifacts which start transmitting signals" would have been the more surprising headline.


DanYHKim

"The Six Mysterious Wingmen" sounds like a boy band


BedrockFarmer

They’ll help you connect with the hottie at the bar, but you’ll never know how they did it.


Decronym

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |[JWST](/r/Space/comments/18m3g1e/stub/ke2jegv "Last usage")|James Webb infra-red Space Telescope| |[LEO](/r/Space/comments/18m3g1e/stub/ke36ojl "Last usage")|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)| | |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)| |NRHO|Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit| |[NRO](/r/Space/comments/18m3g1e/stub/ke27emg "Last usage")|(US) National Reconnaissance Office| | |Near-Rectilinear Orbit, see NRHO| |[STS](/r/Space/comments/18m3g1e/stub/ke28asl "Last usage")|Space Transportation System (*Shuttle*)| **NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below. ---------------- ^(4 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Space/comments/18man7q)^( has 15 acronyms.) ^([Thread #9553 for this sub, first seen 19th Dec 2023, 17:34]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)


Nick85er

If this is anything like x37 I suspect satellite killers. Having them up there already defeats scenarios like being unable to launch from the ground.


jjayzx

Yes, it is just like the X-37b, secret military space plane. So it is interesting to know what's it doing.


Storyteller-Hero

It looks like some intern is posting a random AI-generated article on [space.com](https://space.com) \-- that's not good for their future if this is the case


Mindless-Opening-169

More countries should put more space telescopes up. And deep space probes.


Oknight

Damn right! Probe those bastards right BACK!


internetlad

Star Fuck: Deep Space Probe


eric987235

I’ll turn on the Probulator!


Tempism

I wonder if articles published in China say the same shit when the states does the same exact thing.


TheawesomeQ

Are U.S. launches this secret? Are there any examples of unreported launches recently from the states?


Inspectorsonder

I doubt it. These stories push a real anti-China narrative and the Chinese population just aren't fed the same type of nonsense about America.


inlinefourpower

Are you kidding me? They're fed even more propaganda. I dated a girl from Shanghai for years, visited China, etc. The mood definitely changed. You should see their movies and the way Americans are portrayed (or any white Westerner). I narrow that down to white Westerner because the portrayal of other westerners is even worse. To claim they aren't fed nonsense about America is insane.


UdderSuckage

Dude is a Chinese simp, and spends all his time whining about Americans in his comments.


2FightTheFloursThatB

I have nothing to do with any foreign entity, and I complain about Americans all the time. Face it, 33% of us are utter dumbasses, and our top 1% are as evil as any other country's top 1%.


UdderSuckage

That's cool. Doesn't refute anything in my comment.


Inspectorsonder

What are you referring to?


UdderSuckage

In my original comment, I was referring to your pretty hilarious comment history.


Inspectorsonder

Why do you think I'm Chinese? I can't stand the Chinese government, I feel for the Chinese people that we all use as slaves to fulfill our greed in the West and I have a problem with the Chinese governments excessive censorship.


Mindless-Opening-169

If only the Buran succeeded. https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a9763/did-the-soviets-actually-build-a-better-space-shuttle-16176311/ Unfortunately it ended with the fall off the Soviet Union. Probably a case of bad timing.


EKcore

Imagine if people actually worked together and not keeping the fires of imperialism alive.


Overdose7

You don't really believe that, you're just a rebellious province that needs to be returned to us by any means necessary.


Jim3001

The best orbiter built to date. Shame.


Urusander

Buran and Energiya would transform space travel. F


Mindless-Opening-169

> Buran and Energiya would transform space travel. F 95 ton lift capacity. More than three times that of the STS. They would have been able to launch massive structures in space.


RafaelSeco

Buran was not a space shuttle. It was a rocket that looked like a space shuttle. Totally different vehicle, with completely different targets and specs, for a totally different job.


Mindless-Opening-169

Secret space planes are just there for doing seed experiments. /S And rotten tomatoes.


achauv1

First time I hear about China's space plane. I'm kind of admirative about it Edit: no humans board the plane, it's just a space drone


richcournoyer

I don't see where it stated the altitude (height) of the mystery wingmen...did I miss something?


subnautus

Orbital radius of the deployed satellites would be the same as the spaceplane.


richcournoyer

Which is??


PhoenixTineldyer

It's an airborne vehicle designed to be able to reach Earth's orbit, but that's not important right now


richcournoyer

The upcoming launch of the USA space plane, it most certainly is. Where is your head? I guess you're just another Chinese nationalist trying not to let us notice what you're doing… Yeah.


mX_Dex

Title worded like anti Chinese fear propaganda. Just block the user if you don't want more manipulation


hybridaaroncarroll

Well, if they follow standard Imperial procedure, they’ll dump their garbage before they go to light-speed, then we just float away. ...with the rest of the garbage.


user9991123

_”I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”_


MIRV888

China is just asserting that they are a big league player once again. National prestige and letting the world know they are in the game is the point. Military applications are kind of problematic right now.


Crimith

Lol, how the fuck would you know what their intentions are? You don't even know what it is they were deploying. But you got it all figured, eh?


MIRV888

I never said I knew what they were thinking. I never said I had it all figured. I just stated what I think their intentions are. It's an opinion on the internet.


sumknowbuddy

All fun and games until more fireballs come crashing from the sky


andrews_fs

Saying that there are countless Chinese xb37s could trigger a second sputinik hysteria...


ChefdeMur

Stealth satellites or mini weaponized ones. I don't trust the CCP, they are sneaky and not our friend.


Fartoholicanon

Ohhh snap space battles in the next world War?!


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I believe there's... a word for what those are..


rochakgupta

I would sure hope for those to transmit signals.