Yinpiao Zhou was arrested at San Francisco International Airport just before he was set to board a flight back to China on Dec. 9.
Federal agents arrested a Chinese national on Dec. 9 suspected of flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and taking photos of the SpaceX rocket pads on a day when the contractor launched a sensitive national reconnaissance payload.
Authorities arrested Yinpiao Zhou, 39, at the San Francisco International Airport just before he was set to board a China-bound flight, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
He is scheduled to make his first court appearance in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to the office’s spokesman Ciaran McEvoy.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint on Nov. 30 in Santa Barbara County federal court. Zhou is charged with failure to register a drone and violating national defense airspace, according to court documents.
Sections of the complaint were redacted.
Federal agents allege in the court document that Zhou traveled to Ocean Park, a park near Vandenberg Space Force Base, on Nov. 30 and flew a drone over the base.
SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, has two pads at the base from which its Falcon 9 rockets are launched several times a year.
On that same day, SpaceX launched a sensitive payload developed for the National Reconnaissance Office, federal agents said.
SpaceX was selected by the U.S. Space Force to launch nine national security missions under its National Security Space Launch Phase 3 program, the Space Force announced on Oct. 18.
The launch, which occurred at 3:10 a.m., was successful, according to the National Reconnaissance Office.
Federal agents alleged that Zhou flew over the base and photographed sensitive areas of the military facility for 59 minutes that day, according to the court document.
The drone contained an SD card, which is a type of digital information storage device, according to the court document.
By Jill McLaughlin
