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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launched the mysterious X-37B spacecraft

The X-37B unmanned spacecraft finally took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Friday morning at 04:37 Iran time after several weeks of delay. SpaceX’s first two attempts to launch this stealthy military spacecraft in December were delayed due to adverse weather conditions and problems with ground equipment.

Today’s launch marked the seventh flight of the X-37B; But this was the first time that a military space plane traveled to space atop SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, the world’s second most powerful operational rocket after the Space Launch System. This mission was also the 95th SpaceX launch in 2023. Just a few hours later, at 07:31 Iran time, this company made its 96th and last launch this year by launching 23 Starlink satellites on top of the Falcon 9 rocket.

Before the spacecraft entered its final orbit, SpaceX halted its live broadcast of the Falcon Heavy launch at the request of the US Space Force.

The new X-37B mission, known as OTV-7 and also USSF-52, will apparently use the power of the Falcon Heavy to carry out its tasks. Space Force officials previously stated that the main objectives of the latest flight “include relaunching the reusable spacecraft to new orbital paths.”

This was the first time that the X-37B space plane was launched on top of the Falcon Heavy rocket

Falcon Heavy consists of the first three stages of Falcon 9 that are connected to each other. The central booster of this combination carries the second stage on top of which the cargo is placed. As we saw in today’s flight, all three first stages of Falcon Heavy are reusable. The rocket’s two side boosters returned to Earth for a safe landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base approximately 8.5 minutes after liftoff. These two boosters, which were previously used in the launch mission of NASA’s Psyche probe in October, experienced their fifth launch and landing today.

Both Falcon Heavy side boosters landed safely at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2, marking the 257th and 258th successful landings of an orbital-class rocket, SpaceX engineer Jesse Anderson announced live. However, the rocket’s central booster flew for the first and last time today and was intentionally discarded in the Atlantic Ocean after launch; Because it lacked enough fuel to return and land on Earth.

The X-37B resembles the retired NASA space shuttle; But it is much smaller than that legendary spacecraft. This unmanned vehicle is only 8.8 meters long and has a wingspan of 4.6 meters. In contrast, each space shuttle orbiter was 37 meters long and had a wingspan of more than 24 meters.

The X-37B is manufactured by Boeing and the US Space Force apparently owns two of them. These space planes are mainly used as orbital test equipment and allow the US military to understand how the instruments function and behave in the space environment. Beyond this, there is no other information about the X-37B. Details of the spacecraft’s missions, from flight plans to original payloads, are usually classified.

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However, the X-37B sometimes carries some civilian and non-secret equipment into space. For example, in today’s mission, a test payload from NASA, called Seeds-2, was launched with the spacecraft. According to Space Force officials, Seeds 2 exposes plant seeds to an environment full of harmful space radiation.

Details about X-37B missions are usually classified

It is not known how long the OTV-7 mission will last. But since the previous 6 X-37B missions lasted more than 7 months, we can expect the stealthy spacecraft’s latest mission to be just as long.

The previous X-37B missions were all in near-Earth orbit, at an altitude of only a few hundred kilometers above the planet; But Falcon Heavy can take the spacecraft much higher and potentially reach the Earth’s orbit at an altitude of 35,000 km. But it is not known whether this will actually happen or not.

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