The US military’s secretive X-37B robot spaceplane launched from Florida on Thursday night on its seventh mission. This mission was the first to be launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, providing the capability to reach a higher orbit than ever before.
The Falcon Heavy, comprised of three liquid-fueled rocket cores strapped together, took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in a spectacular liftoff captured on a SpaceX webcast. The launch, initially delayed due to poor weather and technical issues, followed more than two weeks of preparations.
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This event occurred two weeks after China’s own robot spaceplane, known as the Shenlong or “Divine Dragon,” was launched on its third mission to orbit since 2020, contributing to the growing space rivalry between the US and China.
The X-37B mission is conducted by the US Space Force under the military’s National Security Space Launch program, with few details disclosed by the Pentagon. The Boeing-built vehicle, resembling a miniature space shuttle and roughly the size of a small bus, is designed for deploying payloads and conducting technology experiments on extended orbital flights. The craft lands on a runway at the end of its mission.
Having completed six previous missions since 2010, this marked the first mission launched aboard SpaceX’s more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. The X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, had previously been limited to low-Earth orbit, but the Falcon Heavy’s capability allowed the possibility of reaching geosynchronous orbit, more than 35,000 km above Earth.
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office stated that the mission (USSF-52) would involve tests of “new orbital regimes” and experimentation with future space domain awareness technologies. Speculations suggest the X-37B might be headed for a highly elliptical orbit or even a path toward the moon, a region of increasing interest for the Pentagon.
The mission also carries a NASA experiment studying the effects of prolonged radiation exposure on plant seeds in space, with implications for cultivating crops during long-term missions to the moon and Mars.
The specific destination of the X-37B in space was not clarified during the webcast, but SpaceX later posted photos of the liftoff with the headline “Falcon Heavy Launches USSF-52 to orbit.”
China’s Shenlong, launched on December 14, is considered less powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, with a limited payload delivery capability to low-Earth orbit. Observers note the competitive timing of the Shenlong launch with the X-37B flight, indicating heightened interest and scrutiny in space activities.
The duration of the latest X-37B mission was not publicly disclosed, but based on previous patterns, it is expected to run until June 2026 or later. The spacecraft’s last mission remained in orbit for well over two years before landing in November 2022.
The news was prepared using Reuters.
