Navy guys and students of history should immediately get why this is a *bad* thing for us. Apparent-peer-to-peer refueling has a whole bunch of unpleasant implications.
Posted on 07/15/2025 9:12:13 AM PDT by Red Badger
US-based COMSPOC and Swiss firm s2a systems tracked close proximity maneuvers between Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 from June to early July.
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China has reportedly performed a historic refueling mission in Earth’s orbit.
During the mission, two Chinese satellites appear to have docked in geostationary orbit, a report from the South China Morning Post reveals. One then refueled the other, marking an impressive milestone that no other nation has achieved.
While China’s space administration has not officially confirmed the operation was a success, a US space observation company observed the two satellites coming together.
Refueling technologies are a key evolution for orbital operations as well as human spaceflight. As crewed rockets use most of their fuel to reach orbit, these complex operations will be required to power these spacecraft out into deep space.
Shijan-21 and Shijan-25’s refueling operation
Between July 2 and July 6, China’s Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 satellites “appeared visually merged in optical sensor data”, US situational awareness software provider COMSPOC explained in a social media post.
“Given the prolonged RPO time, SJ-21 and SJ-25 may have docked,” it said, using the acronym for “rendezvous and proximity operations”.
Throughout June and July, COMSPOC observed the two satellites performing several close approaches in geosynchronous orbit. The first of these occurred on June 13, when Shijan-25 and Shijan-21 came with 1 km (0-6 miles) of each other after starting their close approach on June. They stayed in that position for roughly 90 minutes.
During the maneuver, two US surveillance satellites, USA 270 and USA 271, were positioned on either side of the Chinese satellites.
The two Chinese satellites performed another close-proximity operation on June 30, according to optical tracking images from Swiss space surveillance firm s2a systems. Both satellites were orbiting at an altitude of 35,786km (22,236 miles) above the equator at the time.
“After a day with small but relatively constant distance yesterday, the two objects came closer again today and can no longer be separated by our instrument since about 11:00 UTC (7pm Beijing time),” s2a systems said on July 2.
The importance of orbital refueling
Shijan-25 was launched in January this year, while Shijian-21 has been in space since 2021. The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology designed Shijan-25 satellites to test on-orbit refueling capabilities as well as operations that could extend a satellite’s life span.
In 2022, Shijan-21 was involved in a complex orbital operation. That year, the satellite docked with Beidou-2 G2, a defunct Chinese navigation satellite. Shijan-21 then towed the satellite to a “graveyard orbit” above GEO. The satellite used up most of its fuel in that operation. Now, it has reportedly been refueled by Shijan-25 in a historic world first.
The world’s leading space powers see in-orbit refueling is a key technology, crucial for future orbital operations as well as human space travel. The technology is a cornerstone of SpaceX and the US’ Starship program, which eventually aims to send humans to Mars. To fly humans to the Red Planet, a crewed Starship rocket will have to refuel in orbit to carry enough fuel for the long journey.
Those who know won’t say.
I would question the ‘no other nation has achieved’ statement.
Just not ‘public’...i.e., ‘black’
Feminists immediately condemned the male satellite for refuelling the female satellite without verbal or written consent, noting the male satellite didn’t even take it out and pay for a vegan dinner first.
A Quark could stay up for a long time collecting space junk. Marooned in orbit with the Betties. Wow!
The big surprise for me about NASA is it WASN’T JFK who proposed the moon landing.
It was actually Eisenhower who began talks with NACA in the 50’s to see if it could be done.
JFK just took credit for the idea.
YAWN
Space station is routinely resupplied.
Been refueling and reprovisioning the Space Station for 30 plus years now.
First? In 2007, DARPA along with Boeing, Ball Aerospace and other team members, flew the very successful Orbital Express mission in which two unmanned spacecraft conducted rendezvous and docking operations, followed by hydrazine fuel transfer (both pressure-driven and pump-driven) from Boeing’s ASTRO spacecraft to Ball’s NextSat and back again from NextSat to ASTRO.
Well, I guess my son lo longer holds the Guinness World Record for closest satellite orbit.
(Actually the mission at NASA he worked at held the record but he’s personally beat it but never called Guinness)
I say future combat only in the sense that currently we do not have satellite to satellite or satellite to surface combat actively going on. As in, this could literally start tomorrow.
It’s not a proven refueling and resupply operation yet, no, but it’s the hard part done. The rest is just engineering details if they haven’t already accomplished it.
Space Station rendezvous is only semi-automated and the station, vehicle and docking ports are a LOT larger and engineered with more room for error.
Put in terrestrial terms, space station refuel/reprovision is like underway replenishment at sea between ships, satellite reful/rearm is like air to air refueling.
It isn’t. There is no stealth in space and the X-37 is clearly visible from terrestrial observation stations when in normal satellite orbits.
Also worth noting, per your other post about Communist propaganda - this wasn’t the Commies crowing about this happening. This was outside observers noting it happening, with the Chinese not saying anything at all about it.
First between mass produced satellites instead of one-offs, at the very least.
Navy guys and students of history should immediately get why this is a *bad* thing for us. Apparent-peer-to-peer refueling has a whole bunch of unpleasant implications.
X-37B is likely an on-orbit recon system that can also deploy additional satellites and drag them onboard to service them
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Just guesses. It could also be used to trade goods to aliens for all we know.
If so, the aliens don’t show up on radar, nor is there a gap in VLA radar observation near the X-37 when it’s up there. :P
Why would the Aliens want to show up on radar? They seldom do anyway.
“Why would the Aliens want to show up on radar? They seldom do anyway.”
We know they are there because their advanced technologies prevent us from seeing them.
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