Dip and Dive
Despite being top-secret, the Pentagon is promising that its X-37b spaceplane is going to do some sick-ass stunts in the upper atmosphere soon.
As SpaceNews reports, the Department of Defense’s secretive X-37B craft is slated to do some aerobraking maneuvers while it passes through Earth’s upper atmosphere, essentially using atmospheric drag to alter its orbit and save on fuel.
Manufactured by Boeing, the reusable and unmanned craft is jointly operated by the Space Force and Air Force. It’s been in orbit on its latest mission since just before Christmas of last year and was launched just a few weeks after China’s Shenlong counterpart, the website notes.
Though we don’t know exactly what its purpose is or how long its current flight is supposed to last, the X-37B has repeatedly shown itself to be capable of staying in space for long periods of time.
“This first-of-a kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain,” general Chance Saltzman, the branch’s chief of space operations, said in a statement provided to SpaceNews.
Fuzzy Timeline
This new trick, which will see the spaceplane dipping its wings into the atmosphere to slow it down, is just another example of the expensive X-37b‘s technological prowess — even if we don’t know why, exactly, it’s necessary.
It’s also unclear when this new atmospheric aerobraking trick will occur, but military officials did provide a peek into what will happen after the stunt in a separate statement to Ars Technica.
“Once the aerobrake maneuver is complete, the X-37B will resume its test and experimentation objectives until they are accomplished,” the branch told the website, “at which time the vehicle will deorbit and execute a safe return as it has during its six previous missions.”
Interestingly, Space Force also admitted a bit of the secretive spaceplane’s current operations in its statement to Ars as well. During its nine months in orbit, the X-37b has “conducted radiation effect experiments and has been testing space domain awareness technologies in a highly elliptical orbit.”
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