After multiple launches, the Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle returned to orbit on Dec. 28 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The secretive reusable spaceplane launch came two weeks after China launched its own mysterious spacecraft, Shenlong, on December 14th. Originally, the Space Force planned to launch the X-37 on Dec. 7, before Shenron, but that date was postponed several times due to ground issues, weather, and pad availability.
Still, the closeness of the competing spaceplanes’ launches has raised some eyebrows, with Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman saying on Dec. 13 that the two planes were launched at about the same time. It’s probably not a coincidence.”
“It’s no surprise that the Chinese are very interested in our spaceplane. We’re very interested in theirs,” Saltzman said at the conference in Orlando, Florida. Speaking at the Space Power Conference. The ability to get something off the ground, do a few things, take it home and see the results is powerful. Therefore, these are his two most notable objects in orbit. It’s probably no coincidence that they’re trying to match us in this timing and order. ”
Shenron is already making headlines with the following news: Space.com reported Amateur trackers claimed to have released six objects into orbit, some of which were emitting signals.
Details about the X-37 are sparse, but the Space Force has confirmed that the mission, the spaceplane’s seventh, will test the spacecraft in a “new orbital regime.” Previously operated in low-Earth orbit between about 110 and 500 miles above the ground, the Falcon Heavy will carry a 58,860-pound payload, much larger than the X-37B, to geostationary orbit more than 32,000 miles above the ground. I can do it.
“We’re going to expand that space,” Saltzman said before the launch. “There are some good experiments and tests, and that’s the main purpose of testing technology.”
In a post-launch release, the Space Force said the X-37 will “experiment with space domain awareness technology and investigate the effects of radiation on NASA materials.” Other payloads remain classified.
“My memories go back to Project Gemini and Project Mercury,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a release. “This is an incredible event, and we think about the decades of teamwork that led to a revolutionary increase in space travel capabilities. We have come this far, and it is because of the teamwork of our governments, the Air Force, And now a Space Force that didn’t exist until a few years ago; NASA; an industry team; and so many others who contributed to what we saw tonight.”
It’s unclear when the Space Force will announce anything more about the X-37, but it could be a while. With each successive mission, the spaceplane spent more and more time in orbit, reaching a record 908 days on its last return in November 2022. If this trend continues, the spacecraft will not return to Earth from its current mission until June 2026.
Nevertheless, Saltzman clarified at the Space Power Conference that “great power competition” between the United States and China has reinvigorated interest in keeping the X-37 program alive.
