SpaceX launches US military’s X-37B robot spaceplane with secretive payload

News, US December 30, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

The U.S.-based commercial space company, SpaceX, conducted the launch U.S. military’s secretive X-37B robot spaceplane on December 29, 2023. The launch was conducted at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center using the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Originally planned for December 10, the launch faced multiple postponements during that week, primarily attributed to adverse weather conditions and, on one occasion, a “ground side issue” shortly before scheduled liftoff, according to SpaceX.

The spacecraft was rolled back into the hangar on three separate occasions, only hours before the planned countdown. The delays provided SpaceX’s teams with the opportunity to perform additional systems checks in preparation for the current launch window.

The Pentagon has revealed very limited information about the current X-37B mission, which is being managed by the U.S. Space Force as part of the military’s national security space launch program.

USSF-52 launched an X-37B on a Falcon Heavy rocket, marking the seventh space flight for the X-37B program and its first launch on a Falcon Heavy.

#X37B #USSF52 #SSC https://t.co/e7qisIUUdb pic.twitter.com/bM1MEtJ6OL
— United States Space Force (@SpaceForceDoD) December 29, 2023

The launch came two weeks after China’s robot spaceplane, known as the Shenlong, or “Divine Dragon,” was launched on its third mission to orbit since 2020, adding a new twist to the growing US-Sino rivalry in space.

China’s equally secretive Shenlong was carried to space on 14 December by a Long March 2F rocket, a launch system less powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and believed to be limited to delivering payloads to low-Earth orbit.

X-37B robot spacecraft

Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, the X-37B is designed as a reusable spacecraft launched vertically into orbit by a launch vehicle and eventually re-enters Earth’s atmosphere as a spaceplane landing horizontally on a runway like the Space Shuttle.

The X-37 program started in 1999 with NASA, which initially planned to construct two vehicles: an Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV) and an Orbital Vehicle. NASA transferred the project to the U.S. military in 2004, specifically, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). At that point, X-37 became a classified project.

Unlike a conventional space shuttle, the X-37B is an unmanned robotic aircraft that is managed by the U.S. Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office in collaboration with the Space Force. the spacecraft has been designed and developed by Boeing and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

X-37B space plane — *^{X-37B 1 sits on the runway after landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility on 12 November 2022, the 909th day of the OTV-6 (USA-299) mission. (Image Credit: U.S. Space Force/Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks)}*

The X-37B is designed to remain in space for extended-duration missions lasting at least 270 days, though some missions have lasted much longer. The X-37B’s fifth mission reached 780 days in orbit, while its sixth mission ran from May 17, 2020, to Nov. 12, 2022, a total of 908 days in orbit.

The X-37B is about 8.8 meters long and 2.9 meters tall, with a wingspan of just less than 4.6 meters. At launch, it weighs 4,990 kilograms.

“The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth,” states an X-37B fact sheet produced by the Air Force.