Air Force to put not-so secret X-37B space drone through advanced orbital tests

In context: Boeing and NASA began processing nan first Orbital Test Vehicles successful nan X-37 bid successful 1999, pinch nan first X-37 drone entering work successful 2010. Now managed by nan US Air Force Space Command, nan programme offers a valuable level for testing classified technologies and precocious subject systems.

The US Space Force precocious announced a important improvement successful nan OTV-7 mission. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle will soon execute a bid of aerobraking maneuvers, utilizing Earth's atmospheric resistance to set its orbit much efficiently. Officially, nan extremity of nan trial is to safely discard nan X-37B's work module components, though nan mission's existent objectives whitethorn widen beyond this.

The OTV-7 ngo began successful December 2023, focusing connected experiments related to nan effects of abstraction radiation. With nan recently announced aerobraking maneuvers, nan X-37B will beryllium capable to alteration its orbit pinch minimal substance consumption. Once these maneuvers are complete, nan spacecraft will revert to its superior experiments.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall emphasized that these tests are portion of nan Space Force's dedication to invention and nationalist security, which suggests that nan Pentagon is revealing constricted specifications astir nan OTV program's existent mission. General Chance Saltzman highlighted nan aerobraking maneuvers arsenic a cardinal milestone for nan US Space Force, reinforcing nan country's technological and subject supremacy successful nan progressively competitory abstraction domain.

The X-37 is simply a 29-foot reusable spacecraft resembling a miniature abstraction shuttle, launched into orbit aboard a bearer rocket. This remotely-controlled drone tin run successful high-altitude orbits ranging from 620 miles to complete 22,210 miles supra Earth's surface. Thanks to its onboard batteries and star panels, it tin stay successful orbit for years astatine a time.

Boeing has projected a scaled-up version, nan X-37C, which would beryllium designed to transportation astronauts wrong a pressurized compartment. However, nan X-37B is nan only version that has been utilized for existent tests. In 2015, aft completing 3 operational missions, nan X-37B squad received an grant from nan Space Foundation for advancing reusable spacecraft exertion and orbital maneuvers.

According to analysts and erstwhile Air Force officials, nan X-37 program, which is partially classified, offers nan US a important advantage successful deploying subject exertion globally. The X-37B's expertise to quickly alteration orbits makes its trajectory unpredictable for adversaries. Some estimate that nan Space Force whitethorn besides beryllium utilizing nan autonomous spacecraft to trial top-secret surveillance technologies.