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The US Space Force’s X-37B is about to fly for the seventh time.
The Space Force and SpaceX are “making final preparations” for the planned Sunday evening (Dec. 10) launch of the robotic X-37B, Space Force officials said in an emailed update today. now (Dec. 7).
The space shuttle is set to lift off on NASA’s Falcon Heavy rocket Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 pm EST (0114 GMT on December 11). If SpaceX goes ahead with the launch as expected, you can watch the action right here on Space.com.
Target: SpaceX will launch the Space Force’s X-37B spacecraft on a Falcon Heavy rocket
The Space Force believes it has two X-37B vehicles, both of which were built by Boeing. Space shuttles are just like the old NASA space shuttles, but smaller; both X-37Bs can fit into the cargo bay of a single ship.
The two X-37Bs have flown a total of six missions so far, longer and more ambitious than before. The latest one, called OTV-6 (Orbital Test Vehicle-6), touched down in November 2022 after orbiting the Earth for 908 days.
It is not clear how long the upcoming aircraft, OTV-7, will last; The Space Force released few details about the X-37B missions, as most of their payloads are classified. Some of these tools appear to be new instruments; Military officials have long said the X-37B is being used primarily as a test for new technology.
But the X-37B also carries special research payloads. For example, one of the unexplained experiments going up on OTV-7 is Seeds-2, a NASA project that will test how seeds will be affected in the long term to be exposed to the ship.
The first five X-37B missions were launched on United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, and the most recent one flew on a SpaceX Falcon 9. OTV-7 will be the first to use the Falcon Heavy .
The Heavy has eight missions under its belt so far. It was last launched in October, sending NASA’s Psyche spacecraft towards the dangerous asteroid of the same name.