The U.S. military’s X-37B spacecraft departed Thursday on another top-secret mission expected to last at least several years.
As with previous missions, the reusable plane, which resembles a mini space shuttle, carried sensitive experiments. No one is on board.
The spaceplane took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at night aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, but was delayed for more than two weeks due to technical problems.
This was the seventh flight for the X-37B, which has been in orbit for more than a decade since its debut in 2010.
Joe Skipper/Reuters
The last flight was the longest ever, lasting two and a half years before ending on the runway at Kennedy Airport a year ago.
Space Force officials declined to say how long the orbital test vehicle would remain in flight or what it would carry, other than for NASA experiments to measure the effects of radiation on materials.
Manufactured by Boeing, the X-37B resembles NASA’s retired space shuttle. But at 29 feet long, it’s only a quarter of the size. We don’t need astronauts. The X-37B is equipped with an autonomous landing system.
It is designed to take off vertically like a rocket, but land horizontally like an airplane, and orbit at a height of between 150 and 500 miles. Two X-37Bs are based in Kennedy’s former shuttle hangar.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
