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TL;DR: The U.S. House Pressure has efficiently accomplished the seventh mission of the X-37B, an unmanned spaceplane that spent over 434 days in orbit. Whereas its precise objective stays categorised, hypothesis continues about whether or not it serves as a surveillance instrument, a rapid-response army asset, or one thing totally totally different.
Mission seven launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on December 28, 2023, taking off from Launch Advanced 39A at NASA’s Kennedy House Middle in Florida. The spaceplane was put right into a extremely elliptical orbit, the place it achieved a “vary of take a look at and experimentation targets.”
Late final yr, the X-37B carried out a sequence of aerobraking maneuvers utilizing the drag of Earth’s environment. This allowed the craft to alter its orbit at a minimal gasoline value. The take a look at moreover allowed the spaceplane to soundly get rid of its service module elements.
On the time, the House Pressure mentioned the X-37B had additionally been conducting radiation impact experiments and was testing house area consciousness tech. The latter was mentioned to be essential to serving to the company conduct operations within the more and more congested and contested setting of house, which can finally profit all events concerned.
OTV-7 touched down at Vandenberg House Pressure Base in California within the early hours of March 7, 2025.
The X-37B measures roughly 29 ft lengthy, nine-and-a-half ft tall, has a wingspan of practically 15 ft, and appears like a miniature house shuttle. It’s powered by gallium arsenide-based photo voltaic cells and lithium-ion batteries, and has demonstrated the flexibility to stay in orbit for lots of of days at a time. OTV-6, for instance, stayed in orbit for a formidable 908 days.
The X-37B has captivated onlookers for years because the true nature of the craft’s numerous experiments have not been made public, and doubtless by no means might be. Is it a spy aircraft, a automobile that would ship lethal payloads to any a part of the globe inside minutes, or one thing else totally?
Lt. Col. Blaine Stewart, program director for the X-37B undertaking, mentioned its current achievements have written an thrilling new chapter for the spaceplane. “Thought of collectively, they mark a big milestone within the ongoing improvement of the US House Pressure’s dynamic mission functionality,” Stewart added.
No phrase but on what the House Pressure has in retailer for OTV-8.
