After weeks of delays, the rocket left Thursday evening at 8:07 p.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The takeoff was broadcast live on the SpaceX website. No information was available on the destination of the space drone, an unmanned shuttle, for his seventh mission.
The Pentagon has released little information about the space drone and its new mission, initially scheduled to begin on December 7. SpaceX simply cites the code name given by the Pentagon to the mission –USSF-52– in its press release on the launch. “Falcon Heavy launched the USSF-52 mission into orbit from launch pad 39A”selon SpaceX.
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Materials provided by NASA
The Pentagon previously announced that the seventh mission of X-37B would include “multiple cutting-edge experiences”. “These tests include the exploitation of the space plane re-usable on new orbital regimes, the experimentation of future technologies on the knowledge of the space domain and the study of the effects of radiation on materials provided over there Nasa»according to a statement released last month by the U.S. Department of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office.
The press release specified that this was the first time that the X-37B was launched by a Falcon Heavy rocketone of the most powerful in activity and capable of transporting loads of up to 26,700kg far into space.
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A nine-meter-long drone
Surrounded by the greatest secrecy, the X-37B carried out its first flight in 2010 and it spent a total of more than ten years in space during its first six missions, its manufacturer, the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, indicated at the end of its sixth mission in November 2022. The X-37B was designed for the United States Air Force by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It measures nine meters longhas a wingspan of 4.5 meters and is powered by solar panels.
Its launch by the Falcon Heavy rocket comes two weeks after China put its own space drone, named Shenlong, into orbit on December 14, for what the state agency New China called “some time” during which scientific experiments will be carried out “intended to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space”.
2023-12-31 16:48:29
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