Secretive Space Force Vehicle Will Conduct ‘Groundbreaking’ Maneuver to Adjust Its Orbit

After spending a small implicit 10 months successful space, the U.S. Space Force’s experimental spaceplane known arsenic X-37B volition effort to usage Earth’s atmospheric resistance to alteration its orbit for the archetypal time.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launched the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle connected December 29, 2023, marking the archetypal clip it carried the spacecraft. This is the spaceplane’s seventh clip successful orbit, and the Space Force has large plans for the past limb of its trial vehicle’s travel astir Earth. The spaceplane volition statesman a bid of orbital maneuvers known arsenic aerobraking, which uses the resistance of Earth’s ambiance to alteration orbit portion expending minimal fuel, the Space Force announced connected Thursday.

The X-37B, built by Boeing, volition dispose of its work module earlier completing its remaining ngo objectives, which the Space Force has not disclosed, and past de-orbit to reason its seventh ngo successful space. “This caller and businesslike bid of maneuvers demonstrates the Space Force’s committedness to achieving groundbreaking innovation arsenic it conducts nationalist information missions successful space,” Frank Kendall, caput of the U.S. Air Force, said successful a statement.

The Space Force has remained reasonably secretive regarding its trial vehicle, keeping its capabilities and specifics nether wraps arsenic it competes with China to make the adjacent procreation of reusable spacecraft. There was small accusation shared astir the spaceplane’s ongoing mission, with the Space Force lone revealing that its conveyance would run successful caller orbital alignments and transportation retired experiments with “space domain consciousness technologies.” It remains unclear what those technologies are, oregon what they would beryllium utilized for.

For its seventh mission, the spaceplane is besides carrying a NASA experimentation designed to exposure works seeds to the harsh radiation situation of long-duration spaceflight successful bid to stitchery information for aboriginal crewed missions.

The X-37B launched successful May 2020 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for its sixth mission, and it stayed successful orbit for 908 days earlier landing astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Center successful November 2022, beating its erstwhile grounds of 780 consecutive days successful orbit.

As the sanction suggests, a spaceplane is simply a spacecraft-airplane hybrid that combines the capableness to scope Earth orbit with the easiness of landing horizontally backmost connected the ground, expanding its imaginable for reusability. China is successful the midst of investigating its ain spaceplane, Shenlong, which precocious completed its 3rd ngo aft spending 268 days successful orbit. Naturally, China is besides rather secretive astir its reusable vehicle.

It’s not wide erstwhile the U.S. Space Force volition onshore its spaceplane this time, but the latest announcement suggests that it mightiness beryllium nearing the extremity of its mission, which would marque its sixth clip successful orbit comparatively short. If that’s the case, possibly the Space Force is focused connected carrying retired caller maneuvers alternatively than spending much clip successful orbit, perchance closing successful connected the spaceplane’s last developments.