On Thursday, the Falcon Heavy rocket of SpaceX, the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, launched a US military plane that has generated a lot of interest in the space community in recent years. The uncrewed, reusable, experimental test vehicle, the X-37B, is shaped like a mini space shuttle and used by the Defense Department to send instruments into orbit, sometimes for years. However, the details of X-37B missions, from their flight plans to their primary payloads, tend to be classified.
The launch of the X-37B from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida came after more than two weeks of false starts, delays, and weather problems. It came two weeks after China’s robot spaceplane, the Shenlong, or Divine Dragon, was sent into orbit on its third mission since 2020. That added a new element to the growing US-China space rivalry.
This is the seventh flight of the X-37B, which has gone to space without any crew and will carry out cutting-edge research in various orbits above Earth. It is still being determined precisely where this mission, designated USSF-52, is headed. Still, the Pentagon says it will test operating the X-37B in new orbital regimes and experiment with future space domain awareness technologies.
It is also carrying out a NASA experiment to study how seeds and plants respond to long-duration exposure to the harsh environment of outer space. The ability to grow crops in space could have significant implications for keeping astronauts nourished during future, longer-term trips to the Moon and Mars.
Unlike the retired Space Shuttles, the X-37B is relatively small, measuring 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide. But it is capable of making very high-speed turns and maneuvers. It has a pair of rotors that can spin to produce thrust and a solar array for energy.
The X-37B has been in space for more than ten years, with the most extended previous mission lasting 2 1/2 years before landing on a runway at Kennedy a year ago. The latest mission is expected to last for a couple of years.
It is unknown whether the X-37B will be sent to a highly elliptical orbit around Earth or into a path that could swing it closer to the vicinity of the Moon, where the Pas has taken an increased interest in recent years. The Pentagon is working on ways to sustain human missions to the Moon and then potentially to Mars. It also is pursuing the idea of constructing an artificial satellite in lunar orbit that would serve as a testbed for future spacecraft.
