Details are sketchy but during late August, China mounted a launch of its suborbital/fractional orbital spaceplane from the Jiuquan launch site in the Gobi Desert. According to Space News (Andrew Jones) the flight took place on 26 August. This would make the second flight of this craft in just over a year. The previous flight in July 2021 involved a Long March 2C/3 (CZ-2C/3) launch to a barely stable 200 km orbit which was flown fractionally with a landing made at at Alxa Right Banner airport in Inner Mongolia. This new flight also made a landing at this air base. It is unclear if a similar flight profile was flown or if this was purely suborbital.
Andrew Jones suggests that their is a tie in with the CSSHQ orbital spaceplane design – currently in orbit on its second flight – hinting that the latest suborbital launch is the first stage of a reusable two stage system which might employ both. The alternative is that China is developing a hypersonic glider able to make below-early warning radar warhead strike missions, similar to the Soviet Cold War Fractional Orbital bombardment System (FOBS).
