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The Odysseus Spacecraft: The First Civilian Mission to Successfully Land on the Moon

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Photo taken by the Odysseus spacecraft in lunar orbit

intuitive machine

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander has landed on the moon. This is the first time a private company has landed a spacecraft on the moon, a welcome success after a string of recent high-profile landing failures by other companies.

The Odysseus spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket on February 14 for the flight, called the IM-1 mission. It entered lunar orbit on February 21st and landed near the moon's south pole on February 22nd.

Live footage from air traffic controllers became tense as the scheduled landing time passed without any contact from the lander. Finally, minutes after Odysseus was scheduled to land, Tim Crane, mission director in Intuitive Machines' mission control room, said, “We're receiving a signal. It's faint, but it's definitely there.'' “I'm doing it.”

The signal indicated that the spacecraft had landed on the moon, but the state of the spacecraft is still unknown. However, the landing was successful. “We know this has been a pain, but we're on the surface,” said Stephen Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines. “Welcome to the moon”

Before this landing, three other companies attempted to send landers to the moon. SpaceIL's Beresheet spacecraft was launched in 2019, and ispace's Hakuto-R mission was launched in 2022, but both crash-landed and were destroyed.

Astrobotic's Peregrine lander didn't even get very far after launching in January. A fuel leak forced the operators to return to Earth to burn up in the atmosphere. The success of the IM-1 has brought Intuitive Machines into an elite club. To date, only the national space agencies of the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan have successfully landed on the moon.

Now that we have landed safely, we can begin the second part of the IM-1 mission. Odysseus carried six NASA payloads and six commercial payloads to the Moon. Some of these already serve that purpose, such as landing aids and cameras to take pictures of the landing. Some people have succeeded simply by reaching the moon. Perhaps most notable is artist Jeff Koons' collection of his 125 small sculptures. Other instruments are also now beginning their missions, including instruments that will measure how the moon's surrounding environment affects its surface.

The IM-1 mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, through which government contracts are awarded to private companies to build spaceflight capabilities through public-private partnerships. Three more moon landings are planned through CLPS in 2024, including an Intuitive Machines mission to harvest water ice from the moon's south pole.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Researchers successfully decode the genome of the elusive night parrot

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CSIRO researchers first genome of night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis)one of the rarest and most elusive birds in the world.

night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis). Image credit: Arianna Urso / Western Australian Museum.

The night parrot is a relatively small, short-tailed parrot species endemic to Australia.

This species is also known as the porcupine parrot, nocturnal ground parakeet, midnight parrot, solitaire, spinifex parrot, and nocturnal parakeet. first explained It was published in 1861 by British ornithologist John Gould.

The night parrot is one of the most elusive and mysterious birds in the world, with no confirmed sightings from 1912 to 1979.

They were once widespread in the arid regions of Australia, but their numbers have declined due to environmental changes such as predation by cats and foxes.

It is now known only from localized areas in south-west Queensland and Western Australia.

“Dozens of scientific specimens were collected in the 19th century, with one specimen collected in 1912. A specimen was then discovered in south-west Queensland in 1990,” says the CSIRO Australian National Wildlife Collection. said Dr. Leo Joseph, Director.

“A live bird was reported from the same area in 2013, and a live parrot was finally captured and tagged in 2015.”

“This genome will allow us to explore the genetic basis of why parrots are nocturnal, a trait that is very rare in parrots,” he added.

“We investigate functions such as navigation, sense of smell, beak shape, and suboptimal night vision.”

“Researchers will also be able to perform statistical analysis of this individual's genome to estimate the historical population size of Australia's night parrot.”

“We can now compare this annotated genome with other closely related parrot species, revealing the reasons behind its rarity and limited distribution compared to many closely related species. You can.”

Dr Joseph and his colleagues sequenced the armyworm genome using tissue obtained from specimens found in the Pilbara region.

“Access to high-throughput sequencing technology through CSIRO's Applied Genomics Initiative is accelerating genomics research in Australia,” said Dr Gunjun Pandey, CSIRO Environment Directorate Night Parrot Genomics Project Leader.

“We can now generate very high-quality genomes from very small tissue samples, as small as an ant's head or a single mosquito.”

“This level of quality and detail was not possible even five years ago.”

“Genetic data can be used to maximize diversity in conservation programs, so species are resilient and have the best chance of long-term survival.”

The night parrot genome is an exciting scientific resource for understanding more about this bird, but protecting this species from cats, foxes, fire, and habitat loss is also important for its conservation.

“The night parrot genome will open up many opportunities for further research that will help protect this species,” Dr. Pandey said.

“This will allow scientists to develop a plan to save the night parrot, with the ultimate goal of sequencing and publishing the genome.”

Source: www.sci.news

Japanese spacecraft successfully lands on the moon, but encounters an issue

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SLIM spacecraft illustration

JAXA

Japan's Smart Lander for Lunar Exploration (SLIM) has landed on the moon. Although the spacecraft is not operating perfectly, the successful landing follows a series of recent failed moon landings by governments and private spaceflight companies, and remains encouraging for international efforts to explore the moon. . With this landing, Japan will become the fifth country to land on the moon, following the United States, Soviet Union, China, and India.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched SLIM in September 2023, and the spacecraft took a long orbit to the moon, circling the Earth several times to conserve fuel. It has been orbiting the moon since December, taking images of the surface and preparing for landing.

The January 19 touchdown marked the first use of a technology engineers dubbed “smart eye,” which allows SLIM to aim its landing spot with extreme precision. SLIM determined its position by comparing images from its onboard camera with data from other spacecraft orbiting the moon, then autonomously navigated to a landing site on the slopes of Sioli Crater. JAXA officials are continuing to analyze how well the targeting protocol worked.

Initial signals from SLIM suggest that the solar panels do not appear to be operational, so the spacecraft is operating on battery power for now. If spacecraft operators are unable to figure out what's wrong with the solar cells and get them working, SLIM's scientific capabilities could be hampered and its lifespan significantly shortened. According to JAXA officials, battery life is expected to be only a few hours. It's possible the spacecraft will regain solar power, but for now JAXA's priority is to return as much data as possible to Earth before its batteries run out.

As SLIM descended to the lunar surface, two small rovers, each carrying a small payload of scientific instruments, also descended. One of them is designed to bounce rather than roll on wheels, and the other is a tennis ball. He was designed by toy manufacturers to roll on the moon, with a sphere slightly smaller than a ball. The spacecraft appears to be functioning normally.

Spacecraft landing sites are potentially important. Previous observations suggest that material may have come from inside the moon during the impact that formed the crater. SLIM's scientific instruments can study these minerals to learn about the formation and evolution of the Moon. A successful landing and the scientific data collected will provide useful data for the many spacecraft scheduled to travel to the moon from around the world in the coming years.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

DeepMind’s AI successfully tackles challenging geometry problems for Math Olympiad

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Geometric problems involve proving facts about angles and lines in complex shapes

Google Deep Mind

Google DeepMind's AI can solve some International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) problems in geometry almost as well as the best human contestants.

“AlphaGeometry's results are surprising and breathtaking,” says IMO Chairman Gregor Driner. “It looks like AI will be winning his IMO gold medal much sooner than was thought a few months ago.”

IMO is one of the most difficult math competitions in the world for middle school students. Answering questions correctly requires mathematical creativity, something AI systems have long struggled with. For example, GPT-4, who has shown remarkable reasoning ability in other areas, gets his 0% score on IMO geometry problems, and even a specialized AI can answer them just as well as an average contestant. I'm having a hard time.

This is partly due to the difficulty of the problem, but also due to the lack of training data. This contest has been held annually since 1959, and each round consists of only six questions. However, some of the most successful AI systems require millions or even billions of data points. In particular, geometry problems, which account for one or two out of six questions and require proving facts about angles or lines in complex shapes, are particularly difficult to convert into a computer-friendly format.

Thanh Luong Google's DeepMind and his colleagues got around this problem by creating a tool that can generate hundreds of millions of machine-readable geometric proofs. Using this data he trained an AI called AlphaGeometry and when he tested it on 30 of his IMO geometry questions, the IMO gold medalist's estimated score based on his score in the contest was 25.9, whereas the AI answered 25 of them correctly.

“our [current] AI systems still struggle with capabilities such as deep reasoning. There you have to plan many steps in advance and understand the big picture. That's why mathematics is such an important benchmark and test set in our explorations. to artificial general intelligence,” Luong said at a press conference.

AlphaGeometry is made up of two parts, which Luong likens to different thinking systems in the brain. One system is fast and intuitive, the other is slower and more analytical. The first intuitive part is a language model called GPT-f, similar to the technology behind ChatGPT. It is trained on millions of generated proofs and suggests which theorems and arguments to try next for your problem. Once the next step is proposed, a slower but more careful “symbolic reasoning” engine uses logical and mathematical rules to fully construct the argument proposed by GPT-f. The two systems then work together and switch between each other until the problem is resolved.

While this method has been very successful in solving IMO geometry problems, Luong says the answers it constructs tend to be longer and less “pretty” than human proofs. However, it can also find things that humans overlook. For example, a better and more general solution was discovered for the question from his IMO in 2004 than the one listed in the official answer.

I think it's great that you can solve IMO geometry problems in this way. Yang Hui He However, IMO problems must be solvable using theorems taught at undergraduate level and below, so this system inherently limits the mathematics that can be used. Expanding the amount of mathematical knowledge that AlphaGeometry can access could improve the system and even help make new mathematical discoveries, he says.

It's also interesting to see how AlphaGeometry deals with situations where you don't know what you need to prove, since mathematical insight often comes from exploring theorems that have no fixed proof. Yes, he says. “If I don't know what an endpoint is, can I find it in all sets?” [mathematical] Are there any new and interesting theorems? ”

Last year, algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets Total prize money: $10 million For AI math models, the first publicly shared AI model to earn an IMO gold medal will receive a $5 million grand prize, with small progress awards for major milestones.

“Solving the IMO geometry problem is one of the planned advancement awards supported by the $10 million AIMO Challenge Fund,” said Alex Gerko of XTX Markets. “Even before we announce all the details of this Progress Award, we are excited to see the progress we are making towards this goal, including making our models and data openly available and , which involves solving real geometry problems during a live IMO contest.”

DeepMind declined to say whether it plans to use AlphaGeometry in live IMO contests or extend the system to solve other IMO problems that are not based on geometry. However, DeepMind previously entered a public protein folding prediction competition to test the AlphaFold system.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Physicists have successfully captured direct images of noble gas nanoclusters at room temperature

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For the first time, physicists have directly imaged small clusters of noble gas atoms at room temperature. This result opens up exciting possibilities for fundamental research in condensed matter physics and applications in quantum information technology.

Xenon nanoclusters between two graphene layers. Sizes range from 2 to 10 atoms. Image credit: Manuel L'Engle.

“When I was researching the use of ion irradiation to modify the properties of graphene and other two-dimensional materials, I noticed something unusual. They can become trapped between the sheets,” the University of Vienna said. Dr. Jani Kotaski and his colleagues.

“This happens when noble gas ions pass through the first graphene layer fast enough to pass through, but not the second graphene layer.”

“Once trapped between the layers, the noble gases are free to move because they do not form chemical bonds.”

“But to accommodate the noble gas atoms, the graphene bends to form tiny pockets.”

“Here, two or more noble gas atoms can meet and form two-dimensional noble gas nanoclusters that are ordered and densely packed.”

The researchers' method overcomes the difficulty that noble gases do not form stable structures under experimental conditions at ambient temperatures.

“We observed these clusters using a scanning transmission electron microscope, and they are really fascinating and very fun to look at,” said Dr. Manuel L'Engle, a physicist at the University of Vienna.

“They rotate, jump, grow, and shrink as we imagine them.”

“Getting the atoms between the layers was the most difficult part of the job.”

“Achieving this gives us a simple system to study fundamental processes related to the growth and behavior of materials.”

“The next step is to study the properties of clusters containing different noble gases and how they behave at low and high temperatures,” Dr Kotasky added.

“With the use of noble gases in light sources and lasers, these new structures may enable future applications such as quantum information technology.”

a paper The findings were published in this week's magazine Natural materials.

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M. Langre other. Two-dimensional few atomic noble gas clusters within a graphene sandwich. nut.meter, published online on January 11, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41563-023-01780-1

Source: www.sci.news

Rocket engine prototype successfully ignites fuel in mid-flight

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Testing self-eating rocket engine prototype

Buzdyk et al.

A rocket that eats itself may be on the way. To reach orbit, a rocket must lift its own mass, the mass of its propellant, and the payload it intends to carry into space. But if rockets could burn their own parts for fuel, they could free up capacity for more important scientific projects and for transporting supplies. A team of engineers has built his first prototype of one of these “autophage engines.”

The concept of a rocket that eats its own parts was first patented in 1938, but it was difficult to implement on the huge rockets on which most launches have historically taken place, so no working prototypes were built. Not built. However, the popularity of small satellites has increased in recent years, driving demand for smaller, more efficient rockets that are not constrained by the need to carry huge weights into space.

Krzysztof Busdyk Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK have created a small prototype rocket engine that consumes its own fuel tank. It’s not powerful enough to launch something into space, but it still shows that the concept works. “By burning the fuselage, we are solving the problem of rocket miniaturization. So when we want to send a small payload into space, we can do it right away, without waiting for a rideshare mission on a larger rocket. ” he says.

The researchers will present their findings at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech Forum in Florida on January 10th. This engine was called his Ouroboros-3, named after the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail.

Like the iconic snake, this engine is designed to devour its own backend when it uses up the rocket fuel it contains. “When you run out of propellant, you have an empty tank with all the useless structural mass,” Buzdyk says. “So what we’re doing is expending that dead weight so that we don’t have to carry it around on the way up, so we can carry more mass into space.”

In the prototype, as the oxygen and propane that make up the engine’s main fuel are burned, a plastic tube that holds the fuel is also fed into the engine. This tube makes up up to one-fifth of the total propellant used in burns and provides approximately 100 newtons of thrust. This is only about four times the force required to crack an egg.

The team is currently working on a larger prototype capable of delivering about 1,000 newtons of thrust. This is about one-sixth of the thrust required for the engine to reach suborbital space, and about one-twentieth of the thrust. To get it back on track.

“Additional testing should allow us to scale up the rocket… [but] In some cases, scaling up is not easy, easy or unlikely.” Haim Benaroya at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Challenges include ensuring that the plastic fuselage burns and feeds it to the engine at a constant rate, and testing how burning rocket debris changes its shape and thus its flight path. It is included.

In addition to increasing launch efficiency, autophage engines could also help reduce the problem of space debris, or spacecraft debris that can fly around in orbit and endanger other satellites. There is. Burning out spent fuel tanks, which are typically dropped into the atmosphere or left in orbit, could be a small step toward solving the problem, he said. hugh lewis at the University of Southampton, UK.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

First Vulcan Rocket Successfully Launches Civilian Lander to the Moon

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United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket prepares to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida

UPI / Alamy Stock Photo Credit: Alamy Live

The series of missions to the moon in 2024 will kick off in a big way with the first launch of the new Vulcan rocket. The launch, scheduled for January 8, will carry Astrobotic's Peregrine lander to the Moon as the first mission in NASA's ambitious Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) program.

Vulcan was manufactured by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Before SpaceX, ULA was the dominant force in the U.S. space launch business, but in recent years SpaceX has performed the majority of U.S. launches.

Vulcan could be an opportunity for ULA to regain some of its market share. This is particularly important for ULA as the company is currently up for sale. Potential buyers include Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company Blue Origin. If all goes well with this launch, six more aircraft are planned for launch in 2024.

The purpose of this launch is to transport the Peregrine lander to the lunar surface and back. If successful, it will be the first time a private company has successfully landed on the moon. The lander carries a variety of scientific instruments, including sensors to study lunar water and radiation on the lunar surface, both of which are key to understanding future human exploration. The CLPS program includes many other lunar exploration missions in the coming years that will take complementary measurements to prepare for the continued presence of humans on the lunar surface.

The rocket also carries two particularly controversial payloads. It's a capsule of human remains sent into space by a company called Celestis, which offers something called a “commemorative spaceflight.” One of these capsules contains the ashes of: Star Trek Author Gene Roddenberry and actors James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols will be sent into orbit around the sun, while another will contain the ashes of other humans bound for the moon.

Buu Nygren, the leader of the Navajo tribe, sent a letter In response to the U.S. government's opposition to loading the capsule, he stated, “Putting human remains on the moon is a grave desecration of this celestial body that our people revere.'' NASA responded that because this was a civilian mission, it had no authority over what payload it carried.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

SLIM lunar lander from Japan successfully enters lunar orbit

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by
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
December 26, 2023

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) aims to demonstrate pinpoint landing technology and obstacle detection technology to “land where you want to land.” Credit: JAXA

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) announced that its Smart Lander for Lunar Exploration (SLIM) has successfully entered lunar orbit at 16:51 on December 25, 2023 (Japan Standard Time, JST).

SLIM’s lunar orbit will be inserted into an elliptical lunar orbit connecting the moon’s north and south poles every 6.4 hours, and the altitude at the point closest to the moon (near orbit) will be approximately 600 km (approximately 370 miles). . , 4,000 km (about 2,500 miles) at its furthest point from the moon (Apolune). The orbit change proceeded as planned, and the spacecraft is currently in a normal state.

Lunar orbit insertion (LOI) on December 25, 2023 at 16:51 (Japan time).
Light blue line: current orbit of the moon.
Future Plans:
Green line: Circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 600km.
Yellow line: Altitude approximately 600km x 150km on an elliptical orbit.
Red line: Altitude approximately 600km x 15km on an elliptical orbit. Credit: JAXA

From now on, the Apollone point will descend until mid-January 2024, and the orbit will be adjusted to a circular orbit at an altitude of about 600 km. After that, the perigee will drop and preparations for landing will begin. On January 19th, the near-orbit point will be lowered to an altitude of 15 km (approximately 9 miles), and the descent toward the moon will begin at around midnight (Japan time) on January 20th, with a scheduled landing on the lunar surface. There is. Around 0:20 a.m. on January 20th (Japan time)

Source: scitechdaily.com

Firefly’s Alpha Rocket Successfully Reaches Orbit for the Fourth Consecutive Time

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firefly aerospace launched its Alpha rocket into orbit this morning, carrying a payload from Lockheed Martin into space. However, the company has not yet announced whether it was able to successfully deploy the satellite into its intended orbit, which could indicate a problem with the rocket’s second stage.

Today’s launch marks the fourth ever flight of Firefly’s Alpha rocket. The vehicle took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:32 a.m. local time. The mission, dubbed “Fly the Lightning,” was a commercial launch for customer Lockheed Martin. The rocket carried a Lockheed demonstrator payload called the Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA) Technology Demonstrator to low Earth orbit.

Around 9:40 a.m. local time, Firefly tweeted Alpha’s second stage engine will be re-ignited and it will complete the orbit in about 40 minutes. From there, the Lockheed Martin payload was supposed to be deployed. However, the company still hasn’t provided an update after four hours.

ESA is a type of electronically steered antenna array. Lockheed says its unique design allows new ESA sensors to be calibrated in a fraction of the time compared to traditional orbital sensors, which can take months to power up and become operational. The payload of the company’s ESA demonstrator was integrated into a satellite bus built by Terran Orbital (Lockheed owns nearly 7% of Terran’s outstanding stock).

While the primary objective of the mission is to deploy the payload, Firefly says the mission team also tracks the total effort time from receiving the payload until it is ready for launch, providing space-saving launch capabilities. He said he would continue to demonstrate this to the military. .

Rapid launches are a top priority for the Space Force. Firefly has already demonstrated once during the previous Alpha mission, setting a new record for launch readiness. For this mission, Firefly had just 24 hours to complete its final preparations for launch, encapsulate its payload, and attach it to the rocket.

Source: techcrunch.com

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Algorithm Successfully Deciphers Rogue Wave Pattern

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Scientists used artificial intelligence to analyze more than 1 billion waves over 700 years and developed a breakthrough formula for predicting rogue waves. This groundbreaking research, which converts vast amounts of oceanographic data into equations for the probability of adverse waves, raises questions about previous theories and has significant implications for maritime safety. This research represents a major step forward in this field in terms of the accessibility of findings and the role of AI in enhancing human understanding.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Victoria used over 700 years of ocean wave data, including more than a billion wave observations, and advanced artificial intelligence techniques to predict the occurrence of these threatening sea giants. Previously thought to be a myth, these unusually large and rough waves can cause serious damage to ships and oil rigs. The research team leveraged AI to analyze the vast amounts of data and create a mathematical model that provides a way to predict the occurrence of rogue waves. This new knowledge contributes to making shipping safer, and has paradigm-shifting implications for the maritime industry.

Rogue waves, perceived as a part of sailor folklore for centuries, became scientifically documented when a 26-meter high wave hit the Norwegian oil platform His Draupner in 1995. Since then, research on these extreme waves has been ongoing, culminating in the breakthrough reached by the University of Copenhagen and the University of Victoria. The research team leveraged big data on ocean movements and AI techniques to map the causal variables that lead to rogue waves, ultimately developing a model which usess artificial intelligence to calculate the probability of rogue wave formation.

Incorporating data collection from buoys at 158 locations on U.S. coasts and overseas territories and over a billion waves across 700 years, the researchers were able to use AI to analyze the vast amount of data and predict the likelihood of being hit by a huge wave at sea. The AI techniques also helped the researchers discover the causes of rogue waves and translate them into an equation that describes the recipe for rogue waves. This study also challenged common perceptions about the causes of rogue waves, establishing the dominance of a phenomenon known as “linear superposition.” This new knowledge can help the shipping industry to plan routes in advance and mitigate the risk of encountering dangerous rogue waves.

Source: scitechdaily.com

China successfully sends experimental spacecraft into orbit for the third time in 2020

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BEIJING — China has successfully launched a reusable robotic spacecraft on Thursday for the third time since 2020 in a series of secret orbital test flights aimed at developing reusable technology to reduce the cost of space missions.

The unmanned spacecraft flew atop a Long March 2F rocket, the same rocket series China uses to transport astronauts into space, on Thursday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, state media said. It was launched in

The spacecraft will operate in orbit for a “certain period” before returning to a designated landing site in China. State media reported that reusable technology would be “validated” and space experiments carried out during the flight, but gave no other details.

of final launch The spacecraft was launched in August 2022 and returned to Earth after a 276-day orbit. Details such as what technology was tested or how high the plane flew were not disclosed. Images of the spacecraft have never been released to the public.

China’s plans for a reusable spacecraft (referred to by some as Shenlong, or “Shenron” in Chinese) coincide with a similar secret plan by the United States to fly an autonomous spacecraft known as the X-37B.

Thursday’s launch in China came hours after the launch countdown for the new rocket. X-37B SpaceX has canceled its mission for the third time this week due to weather and technical issues at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A new launch date for the X-37B has not yet been announced. The X-37B was scheduled to launch for its seventh mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket that can carry secret robotic spaceplanes to much higher orbits than ever before.

The Pentagon has provided few details about the mission, which will be overseen by the U.S. Space Command under the military’s National Security Space Launch Program.

But Space Force Gen. B. Chance Saltzman told reporters at an industry conference this week that he expects China to launch Shenron around the same time as the upcoming He said he expected further developments in the growing competition.

“It is no surprise that the Chinese are very interested in our spaceplanes. According to the US aerospace magazine Air & Space Force Magazine, we are very interested in theirs. ,” Saltzman said.

“These are two of the most-watched objects in orbit. It’s probably no coincidence that they’re trying to grab us at this timing and sequence.”

of Made by Boeing(Ban) The X-37B is about the size of a small bus and resembles a small space shuttle ship, and is designed to deploy a variety of payloads and conduct technology experiments on long orbital flights.

On its previous mission, the unmanned X-37B returned to Earth in November 2022 after more than 900 days in orbit.

China successfully launches reusable spacecraft for the first time September 2020 This happened after it had been in orbit for just two days.

The development of reusable spacecraft is considered important to ultimately achieving the goal of increasing the frequency of space flights and lowering the cost per mission.

Source: www.nbcnews.com