Private satellite tracking companies track both China’s and the Pentagon’s X-37Bs
Two different commercial satellite tracking companies, LeoLabs and ExoAnalytics, are using their global network of radars and telescopes to track the movements of China’s X-37B mini-shuttle, dubbed Shenlong (“Divine Dragon” in English), as well as the Pentagon’s own X-37B, both of which launched recently.
LeoLabs activated its new radar system in Western Australia early last year. It’s now part of a 10-radar global network tracking the trajectories of satellites and debris so commercial operators can safely navigate the increasingly congested orbits. “We can see what’s happening in Low Earth Orbit because that’s where radar is dominant,” he explains. “But activity in higher orbits can be tracked with specialised optical telescopes. ExoAnalytics, a US commercial company, has 400 of these deployed worldwide, with 11 sites in Australia.”
LeoLabs’ radars are tracking Shenlong in its low Earth orbit. Since the U.S. X-37B is in a higher orbit, it is being monitored by ExoAnalytics.
Both these companies now provide satellite tracking services that were once the sole domain of the U.S. military. Not only does the military buy their information, so do private concerns in the U.S., since their networks track everything, not simply the two X-37Bs. Those unique craft however make for good press copy, and thus help both to sell their services to the world.
Note too that this is the first time I have seen a name attached to China’s X-37B. Previous reports never gave it a name.
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Two different commercial satellite tracking companies, LeoLabs and ExoAnalytics, are using their global network of radars and telescopes to track the movements of China’s X-37B mini-shuttle, dubbed Shenlong (“Divine Dragon” in English), as well as the Pentagon’s own X-37B, both of which launched recently.
LeoLabs activated its new radar system in Western Australia early last year. It’s now part of a 10-radar global network tracking the trajectories of satellites and debris so commercial operators can safely navigate the increasingly congested orbits. “We can see what’s happening in Low Earth Orbit because that’s where radar is dominant,” he explains. “But activity in higher orbits can be tracked with specialised optical telescopes. ExoAnalytics, a US commercial company, has 400 of these deployed worldwide, with 11 sites in Australia.”
LeoLabs’ radars are tracking Shenlong in its low Earth orbit. Since the U.S. X-37B is in a higher orbit, it is being monitored by ExoAnalytics.
Both these companies now provide satellite tracking services that were once the sole domain of the U.S. military. Not only does the military buy their information, so do private concerns in the U.S., since their networks track everything, not simply the two X-37Bs. Those unique craft however make for good press copy, and thus help both to sell their services to the world.
Note too that this is the first time I have seen a name attached to China’s X-37B. Previous reports never gave it a name.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
This post has me continuing to ponder if we have low observable satellites and what they would look like. Besides being hard to see. I suppose anyone reading this who knows the answer wouldn’t reply anyway. ;)
“There’s no hiding in space,” says managing director of LeoLabs Australia Terry van Haren. “It’s all observable to anyone who has the suitable sensors.” – Probably true?
John,
As an amateur observer, they look like a plane at night, only faster. Depending on how high an orbit is, and where it crosses the sky, it can take anywhere from five to ten minutes to pass over. No blinking lights. Some times it looks like they fade, disappear, comeback and repeat, but that is due to the satellite tumbling.
The ISS is very large and you can see the Dragon and Soyuz/Progress spacecraft when they are chasing to or deorbiting from the station. To find nightly passes of spacecraft, I recommend the Heavens-Above website.
Make sure to get away from city lights if possible for best viewing and bundle up.
The world’s longest rolling scissors in the most boring dogfight:)