1 of 2 Top secret US spacecraft will be launched by a SpaceX rocket on December 28, 2023 Photo: Portal/Joe Skipper Top secret US spacecraft will be launched by a SpaceX rocket on December 28, 2023 Photo: Portal /Joe captain
America's top secret space plane, X37B, was successfully launched into space on Thursday evening (28). The spacecraft was launched from the top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in Florida.
The X37B is part of a special United States national security program. The Pentagon has released few details about the spacecraft. For this reason, the aircraft is considered top secret.
The launch came after a delay of more than two weeks. Three previous countdowns were canceled due to bad weather and unspecified technical problems.
This is the seventh mission of the spacecraft, which can orbit at a higher point than previous missions 35,000 km above Earth. However, the US government did not provide any information about what altitude the aircraft would be at.
In a statement, the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office limited itself to saying that the new mission would involve testing “new orbital regimes and experimenting with future space domain detection technologies.”
Analysts have even stated that the spacecraft will be able to explore regions of space near the moon. On the other hand, the closer the X37B gets to the moon, the more difficult it will be to return safely to Earth.
The spacecraft is also conducting a NASA experiment to study how plant seeds are affected by prolonged exposure to the harsh radiation environment in space.
The ability to sustain crops in space has important implications for the nutrition of astronauts on future longduration missions, such as to the Moon or Mars.
The first X37B mission was carried out in 2010. Since then, there have been more than 3,700 days in space. This time, operations are expected to last until 2026.
2 of 2 X37B spaceplanes Photo: Adam Shanks/US Space Force
The X37B was built to deploy various payloads in space and conduct technological experiments on longduration orbital flights.
The vehicle, built by Boeing, is about the size of a minibus. The design resembles a space shuttle.
At the end of the mission, the spacecraft descends back through the atmosphere and lands on an airplanelike runway.