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# Asia Times journalist Gabriel Honrada writes that reports of a Chinese satellite being refuelled in orbit have sharpened the US–China rivalry in space
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/zhurnalist-asia-times-gabriel-onrada-pishet-chto-soobshcheniia-o-dozapravke-kitaiskogo-sputnika-na-orbite-obostrili-sopernichestvo-ssha-i-kitaia-v-kosmose/
- Published: 2026-09-29T07:43:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:25:00.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: The East, In the Press, Science, Society

Asia Times journalist Gabriel Honrada writes that reports of a Chinese satellite being refuelled in orbit have sharpened the US–China rivalry in space. In September the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported that Chinese researchers had announced the first refuelling of a navigation satellite in high orbit. Yet orbital tracking data call the very fact of the operation into question.

According to studies by the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in February 2025 the servicing craft Shijian-25 transferred 142 kilograms of fuel to the satellite Beidou-2 G7 and extended its working life by eight years. Beidou is the name of China's satellite navigation system, which performs the same tasks as the American GPS. However, the data gathered by the US Space Force contradict the claimed docking. The independent astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that in early 2025 both craft were in geostationary orbit, roughly ten degrees of longitude apart. McDowell concluded that, with such a drift, an unobserved docking is physically improbable, unless the tracking networks confused the objects.

Experts explain why refuelling matters to the military. Paul Szymanski and Calogero Bonasia, writing in the journal Proceedings, observe that a satellite designed for 15 years of service carries fuel only for station-keeping and for disposal at the end of its life. Sharp evasive manoeuvres quickly exhaust this reserve. An adversary may therefore merely simulate an interception and thereby force another's satellite to burn its fuel and shorten its service life. Refuelling removes this constraint. The analytical company Novaspace believes that refuellable military craft will be able to change orbit frequently and unpredictably, slip out of tracking and carry out close-range inspections of other states' satellites.

China is already testing craft of the Shijian series, the name meaning “practice”. Arran Hope, an analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, recalls that the satellite Shijian-21 seized a defunct Beidou satellite and towed it 3,000 kilometres to a graveyard orbit. The newer Shijian-25 is equipped with a robotic arm incorporating elements of artificial intelligence. The military analyst Alan Dugger calls space a “grey zone”, that is, an arena of confrontation in which states act below the threshold of open war and where it is hard to establish the intentions and responsibility of the parties.

The United States, too, is preparing for orbital confrontation. The American military is deploying ground-based electronic jamming systems and developing unmanned spaceplanes. In September 2025 American and British craft jointly manoeuvred in orbit near the Chinese satellite Shiyan-12-01\. The author of the article believes that the state which is first to master sustained manoeuvring with refuelling will set the rules of orbital confrontation before any fighting begins on Earth.