Is it a secretive Pentagon weapon? Is it stealthy? Does it sneak as much as satellites? What precisely does it do in house? And why is it up there for thus lengthy?
The Pentagon received’t say. And the veil of secrecy over the X-37B continues forward of its launch Sunday at 8:14 p.m. Japanese on its seventh mission. However this time there are some clues that no less than one thing is totally different.
The drone, which flies with out anybody on board, is to be launched for the primary time on SpaceX’s highly effective Falcon Heavy, which is extra highly effective than the rockets which have launched it previously. That’s led to hypothesis that the mission will likely be in a a lot increased orbit, which seems to be the case in line with current paperwork. SpaceX received the $130 million contract for the launch in 2018.
Nonetheless, what it’d do in that increased orbit stays unknown.
The mission has “a variety of check and experimentation goals,” is the Pentagon’s official assertion. “These assessments embrace working the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future house area consciousness applied sciences.”
The reference about “house area consciousness” might imply that will probably be keeping track of different satellites, doubtlessly waiting for threats. Having a greater sense of what’s going on within the vastness of house — the place adversaries’ spacecraft are and what they’re doing — has grow to be a key mission of the U.S. Area Power. “Our house programs are threatened by quite a lot of rising antisatellite capabilities, and the joint pressure is threatened by more and more subtle adversary space-based programs supposed to focus on the joint pressure,” Gen. Probability Saltzman, the Area Power’s chief of house operations, stated in a assertion to Congress earlier this yr.
Not less than one a part of the mission is understood. The automobile will “expose plant seeds to the cruel radiation atmosphere of long-duration spaceflight” in an experiment for NASA. Up to now, the Pentagon has additionally used the X-37B to check a few of its leading edge applied sciences, together with a small photo voltaic panel designed to rework photo voltaic power into microwaves, a know-how that someday might enable power harnessed in house to be beamed again to Earth.
The Boeing constructed X-37B has additionally been used to deploy small satellites, however what these did was additionally a thriller.
“The U.S. authorities is on this bizarre place the place they brag publicly about how superb it’s and leading edge, however won’t present any data about it,” stated Brian Weeden, the director of program planning on the Safe World Basis, a suppose tank.
A lot of the hypothesis in regards to the automobile might be improper, he stated. For now, its fame is tied primarily to “its mystique,” he stated, although it appears clear that “it’s doing one thing that the Pentagon feels is essential.”
That stated, “it has near-zero feasibility as an orbital weapons system for attacking targets on the bottom,” Safe World says in a truth sheet about this system. In all chance, it’s used for the needs the Pentagon says it’s getting used for: “testing reusable house launch automobile applied sciences (resembling steerage and thermal safety) and on-orbit testing of recent sensor applied sciences and satellite tv for pc {hardware} for threat discount,” in line with Safe World.
That has not stopped different nations, notably China, from pointing to the X-37B for instance of the U.S. weaponizing house. “They’ll’t cease speaking about this factor as a weapon, and the image of American hegemony in house,” Weeden stated.
China additionally has a secretive reusable spaceplane, the Shenlong, which has flown two missions to date. The final one touched down in Could after spending 276 days in orbit. Just like the X-37B, it’s extremely secretive, and no photographs of it have been launched publicly. However it does seem like impressed by its American cousin, Weeden stated. The Chinese language considering is that “if the Individuals suppose it’s essential, then perhaps we should always make investments on this,” Weeden stated.
If Sunday’s X-37B mission is like earlier ones, the spaceplane may very well be in house for some time. Its first flight, which launched in 2010, lasted 224 days. Since then, every mission has gotten longer, and when it touched down at Cape Canaveral after its final flight in November 2022, it had been in orbit for 908 days. In all, the spaceplane has spent greater than 10 years in house, which has allowed the Pentagon to realize all types of information about how totally different elements fare in house for prolonged durations.
“It has been a exceptional check mattress and experimentation automobile for a few years,” Gen. David Thompson, the Area Power’s vice chief of house operations, stated throughout a discussion board earlier this yr. “I’d inform you, you’re solely starting to see a few of the thrilling issues that we now have deliberate for the X-37.”
