The US military sent its mysterious mini-shuttle X-37B into space again on Friday evening for a test flight. The reusable spacecraft took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its seventh mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
After several postponements — the launch was originally scheduled for December 7 — the spacecraft SpaceX’s first two attempts to launch the mysterious shuttle earlier this month were thwarted by bad weather and technical problems.
Friday’s launch was the seventh launch of the US space agency’s NASA system (note). It was SpaceX’s 95th launch of 2023. The two side-mounted booster rockets landed safely on Earth again (see video above).
The mini shuttle is only 8.8 meters long
The Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV for short) weighs almost five tons, is only 8.8 meters long and has a wingspan of 4.6 meters. The spacecraft, of which there are two examples, gets its energy from batteries and a deployable solar sail.
The mini version of NASA’s space shuttle last touched down at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of the OTV-6 mission on November 12, 2022, 908 days after launch and after nearly two and a half years in space.
Speculation about tests for weapons systems
So far, the U.S. Air Force has only reported on the OTVs’ takeoffs and landings. All that was said about the missions was that new materials and technologies – for example the use of new ion engines – would be tested in space. This has fueled speculation that the mini-shuttle could be the precursor to a new kind of in-orbit weapons system, allowing the US to respond quickly in the event of a crisis.
Because the former civilian head of the U.S. Department of the Air Force declared at a security conference in June 2019 that the spacecraft was so agile and maneuverable “that America’s adversaries should go crazy,” the purpose of the small shuttle is even more debated. speculated.
The OTV project started in 1999
The Orbital Test Vehicle has been in the making for quite some time. The project was initially started in 1999 by the civilian US space agency NASA, and in 2004 the US military took over the project – together with the manufacturer of the mini-shuttle, the Boeing subsidiary Phantom Works.
Source: Krone
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