The US Space Force is launching its mysterious X-37B space plane on 10 December atop a Falcon Heavy rocket for what will probably be its highest and longest flight yet
By Leah Crane
6 December 2023
X-37B after its sixth mission
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy
The US Space Force is preparing to launch its secretive X-37B space plane for the seventh time. What little information has been released suggests this will be the uncrewed space plane’s highest and longest flight yet.
Over the course of its first six missions, X-37B spent a total of 3774 days in space, with its last mission in orbit lasting the longest of the six at 908 days. For five of those flights, the plane was launched into space atop Atlas V rockets before continuing in orbit under its own power, and the sixth used one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.
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The upcoming flight, scheduled for 10 December, will launch atop a Falcon Heavy rocket, which is about three times as powerful as the Atlas V and Falcon 9. That, along with a Space Force statement that says that this mission will see the space plane “operating in new orbital regimes”, indicates that this may be the highest and longest flight of X-37B so far.
The exact orbital parameters of previous missions haven’t been disclosed by the US government. “Historically each X-37B mission has expanded the flight envelope of the vehicle,” says Laura McAndrews, a representative for the US Air Force. It is safe to expect this mission to do the same.
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