Some of the comments on this article are interesting, in that they note that the respective launch dates of the two missions would have to mean that USA-226 either anticipated Tiangong-1's orbit, or manoeuvred to track it.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-226" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-226</a><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong-1" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong-1</a>
I did some rough calculations using some online tools to determine the distance between the X-37B and Tiangong-1 and as far as I can tell they're on opposite sides of the earth to each other. I'd also hazard a guess that the USA has far better tools both on the ground and in orbit to track Tiangong-1 than the X-37B, especially with its rather limited payload capability.<p>Full blog post if you're interested: <a href="http://www.therefinedgeek.com.au/index.php/2012/01/06/is-the-x-37b-tracking-chinas-efforts-in-space/" rel="nofollow">http://www.therefinedgeek.com.au/index.php/2012/01/06/is-the...</a>
Funny how we both fully fund China and spy on them at the same time.<p>But no commerce with Cuba except leasing land for a prison.<p>Oh and billions for secret military space shuttles is fine but no more civilian space program.