The Orlando Sentinel reports that SpaceX “is standing down from attempting to launch its powerhouse Falcon Heavy for now, citing the need for ‘systems checkouts’ while weather would have been an issue the next couple of days.” It has already “delayed a Falcon 9 launch as well.” After delaying a Sunday attempt “to launch Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A because of weather and then scrubbing a Monday night attempt less than an hour before its planned liftoff because of a ‘ground side issue,’ SpaceX had announced it would try again Wednesday.” But late Tuesday, “it called off those plans.” USSF-52 is a mission “to send up the Space Force’s secretive mini shuttle, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle built by Boeing, on what would be the spacecraft’s seventh trip to orbit.” The classified missions “have sent it on longer and longer duration flights each time, having spent nearly 909 days in space the last time around.” Weather was also the reason “it called off both a late Tuesday attempt and a planned Wednesday attempt to launch a Falcon 9 from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 on another Starlink mission.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)
Tag: X-37B
X-37B Lands at Kennedy Space Center after Spending 908 Days in Orbit
Aviation Week reported behind a paywall that the US Space Force “landed the X-37B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 12, completing a 908-day mission that set a new record for endurance while performing several classified and unclassified missions.” Space News reported that this was the “sixth mission of the crewless reusable plane, built by Boeing and jointly operated by the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.” On this mission, the “X-37B carried several U.S. military and NASA science experiments, including a Naval Research Laboratory project to capture sunlight and convert it into direct current electrical energy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-8, which remains in orbit. One of NASA’s experiments was the Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space. Scientists will use the data to understand the effects of the space environment on different types of materials. Another experiment was to investigate the effects of long-duration space exposure on seeds.”
Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Space News)
US Military’s X-37B Space Plane in Orbit for 900+ Days
SPACE reported, “The U.S. military’s X-37B robotic space plane just passed 900 days in orbit on its latest hush-hush mission, adding to the program’s flight-duration record.” The space plane launched in May 2020 and does not yet have a return date. The mission is the sixth of the X-37B; thus, it is known as Orbital Test Vehicle 6 (OTV-6) and is the first X-37B flight “to use a service module to host experiments.”
Full Story (SPACE)
X-37B Has Become Critical Tool for U.S. Space Force
Aviation Week reports, “As the Pentagon explores how to fight future wars in space, it is leaning on a mysterious platform that has logged a record-setting number of years quietly operating in space. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle—a 29-ft.-long experimental spacecraft that can reenter the Earth’s atmosphere autonomously—has emerged as a critical tool for the U.S. Space Force’s future planning.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
X-37B Spaceplane Lands Ending 434-Day Mission
Ars Technica reports, “The US military’s robotic mini-space shuttle dropped out of orbit and glided to a runway in California late Thursday, ending a 434-day mission that pioneered new ways of maneuvering in space. The X-37B spaceplane touched down on Runway 12 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 11:22 pm local time Thursday (2:22 am EST Friday), capping its high-flying mission with an automated reentry and landing on the nearly three-mile-long runway at the West Coast’s spaceport.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)
SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Space Force’s X-37B Spaceplane
Spaceflight Now reports, “A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered off launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida shortly before midnight, carrying with it a military spaceplane known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. The launch Thursday night kicked off the eighth mission for the program, which began operational flights in April 2010. United States Space Force (USSF) officials confirmed separation of the Boeing-built spacecraft in the hours following liftoff at 11:50 p.m. EDT (0350 UTC on Aug. 22).”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Video
SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the X-37B (Launch at the 58:35 mark)
Spaceflight Now; YouTube
Next X-37B Mission to Test Quantum Sensor and Laser Link Experiments
Breaking Defense reports, “The Defense Department’s secretive X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle will lift off again in late August, carrying a quantum sensor that could enable navigation when GPS is unavailable as well as a laser communication system, the Space Force announced today. The Aug. 21 mission will be the eighth for the mysterious space plane, which is operated by the Space Force in partnership with the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.”
Full Story (Breaking Defense)