Tag: X-37B
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SpaceX launches Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane to demo laser communications, quantum navigation
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks away from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to begin the USSF-36 mission with the X-37B spaceplane onboard. More than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, tail number 1092, landed with a sonic boom at Landing Zone 2. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now Update Aug. 22,…
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X-37B launches USSF-36 mission aboard Falcon 9
The U.S. Department of Defense’s reusable X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) has embarked on its eighth overall flight into orbit. Vehicle 1, the first X-37B to fly, launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on Thursday, Aug. 21, at 11:50 PM EDT (03:50 UTC on Friday, Aug. 22).…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX, Chinese, and Russian missions make up busy week
Two Chinese rockets, a pair of Russian missions, a trio of Falcon 9 launches, a New Shepard, an Electron, and the long-awaited tenth flight of Starship were scheduled to fly this week. In Russia, a Soyuz rocket launched a modernized version of the Vostok capsule that flew crewed missions in the 1960s from Baikonur, while…
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U.S. Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane lands following 434-day orbital mission
The X-37B on the runway at Vandenberg Space Force Base following its landing there on March 7, 2025. Image: U.S. Space Force. Announced with the thunder of a sonic boom, the secretive U.S. military X-37B spaceplane made its return from orbit early Friday at 2:22am EST (0722 UTC). The uncrewed spacecraft touched down on a…
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In a rare disclosure, the Pentagon provides an update on the X-37B spaceplane
After more than nine months in an unusual, highly elliptical orbit, the US military’s X-37B spaceplane will soon begin dipping its wings into Earth’s atmosphere to lower its altitude before eventually coming back to Earth for a runway landing, the Space Force said Thursday. The aerobraking maneuvers will use a series of passes through the…
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A sleuthing enthusiast says he found the US military’s X-37B spaceplane
It turns out some of the informed speculation about the US military’s latest X-37B spaceplane mission was pretty much spot-on. When the semi-classified winged spacecraft launched on December 28, it flew into orbit on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, which is much larger than the Atlas V and Falcon 9 rockets used to…
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SpaceX launches two rockets—three hours apart—to close out a record year
It seems like SpaceX did everything this year but launch 100 times. On Thursday night, the launch company sent two more rockets into orbit from Florida. One was a Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket in commercial service, carrying the US military’s X-37B spaceplane from a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at…
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SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy rocket, X-37B military spaceplane
A Falcon Heavy roars passed the Moon as it launches the X-37B for the U.S. military. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now. Buy Photo The second time was the charm for SpaceX as it was able to launch the X-37B military spaceplane onboard its Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff of the USSF-52 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center…
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Falcon Heavy launches USSF-52 spaceplane
As 2023 draws to a close, the US Department of Defense’s X-37B spaceplane returned to space on the OTV-7 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. USSF-52, the fifth Falcon Heavy flight of the year, and ninth overall, lifted off on Dec. 28 at 8:07 PM EST (01:07 UTC on Dec. 29). USSF-52 flew from…
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Space Force chief: Timing of Chinese spaceplane launch “no coincidence”
China has launched its top-secret military spaceplane for a third time, days after the US military’s winged spacecraft was grounded for several weeks due to problems with its SpaceX rocket. Observers believe China’s spaceplane looks much like the US military’s X-37B, a reusable craft that Pentagon officials are similarly tight-lipped about. But there’s a distinction…