Scott Silke/Sipa
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket was on the launch pad ahead of a Dec. 11 launch attempt of the U.S. military’s X-37B spacecraft. The company postponed the launch at the time.
CNN
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SpaceX’s massive Falcon Heavy rocket will return to the skies Thursday night, but this time it will launch a mysterious spacecraft destined for the U.S. military to conduct cutting-edge research.
The rocket is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:07 p.m. ET, carrying the military’s unmanned, autonomous X-37B spaceplane to unprecedented heights.The launch will be livestreamed SpaceX website.
But it’s not clear exactly where the spaceplane will go.
The X-37B’s activities in space have long been a subject of interest and speculation in the space community, as amateur enthusiasts race to track the X-37B’s whereabouts and share theories about its activities. It has become.
The reusable, fully autonomous X-37B, which resembles a small NASA space shuttle with blacked-out windows, is known to explore concepts such as: Relaying solar energy from space and using it on Earth and studying the effects of radiation on seeds used to grow food.
And this mission, the seventh spaceflight by the X-37B plane, promises to be even more interesting than previous flights.
Staff Sergeant Adam Shanks/U.S. Space Force
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle will successfully complete its sixth mission in 2022.
The launch will mark the first time a spaceplane aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. most powerful operational rocket In the world.
Previously, the X-37B has been launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the Atlas V rocket manufactured by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The Falcon Heavy generates more thrust than those two rockets combined.
A Falcon Heavy launch could indicate that the X-37B is headed for a more distant orbit, perhaps the moon or Mars, said Paul Graziani, CEO of space object tracking specialist COMSPOC. he suggested.
If it were to fly much deeper into space than previous flights, it could be much harder for people observing the skies above Earth to pinpoint where the craft is.
If the military doesn’t want people tracking the X-37B, Graziani added, it can use various methods, such as hiding the X-37B in the glare of the sun or changing its position frequently. The X-37B has already demonstrated that it is capable of multiple maneuvers in space in previous flights.
COMSPOC plans to attempt to search for the spacecraft once it reaches geostationary orbit, about 22,400 miles (36,000 kilometers) from Earth. Geostationary orbit is the orbit in which most large communication satellites operate. Graziani and Bob Hall, COMSPOC’s director of operations integration, said the company’s focus on sensors for tracking satellites is in geostationary orbit.
“Whatever happens, I think this is one of the most interesting things that has happened in space in a long time,” Graziani said of the X-37B launch.
The X-37B will enable the United States to conduct experiments to understand how to improve current and future space operations and push the boundaries of what is possible, according to a statement from Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, director of space operations. .
Some of the research on this mission will include experiments for NASA aimed at finding ways to sustain astronauts on future deep space missions. The project, called Seeds-2, “exposes plant seeds to the harsh radiation environment of long-duration spaceflight” and builds on research conducted on previous X-37B missions.
Learning how to grow food in space’s harsh, soilless environment could be crucial for astronauts on long-duration missions to the moon and beyond, places where fresh supplies are more difficult to reach. There is sex.
It’s unclear how much time the spacecraft will spend in orbit during this stint, but historically each X-37B flight has been longer than the last.
The autonomous X-37B’s last space trip ended in November 2022, after the spacecraft spent nearly 909 consecutive days in space. As CNN previously reported, during its sixth mission, the spaceplane will convert solar energy into send it back to earthAccording to the military.
The X-37B has already spent more than 3,700 days in space on other unmanned missions. When it returns to Earth, it lands on a runway like a plane plummeting from the sky.
This release will take place over a longer period of time. two weeks of delay. SpaceX was preparing for launch on December 10th. The launch was postponed twice due to weather and ground pad issues, but then SpaceX abruptly postponed the mission indefinitely to “perform additional system checkouts.”
But during the downtime, the U.S. government considers China its own country. main competitors In the modern space race, we have launched our own secret spacecraft into orbit.
Little is known about the spacecraft from China. Some in the industry speculate that he is a doppelganger of the X-37B in form and function, although no official photos of the vehicle have been released.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency report The secret spacecraft was reportedly launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket.
The agency’s post added only that during its stay in space, the spacecraft will test reusable space technology and conduct unspecified scientific experiments “for the peaceful uses of space.”
It’s unclear how much time China’s spaceplanes will spend in orbit.