{"id":43822,"date":"2025-08-24T00:43:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T16:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/us-militarys-x-37b-spaceplane-stays-relevant-with-launch-of-another-mission\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T00:43:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T16:43:23","slug":"us-militarys-x-37b-spaceplane-stays-relevant-with-launch-of-another-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/us-militarys-x-37b-spaceplane-stays-relevant-with-launch-of-another-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"US military\u2019s X-37B spaceplane stays relevant with launch of another mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US military\u2019s reusable winged spaceship rocketed back into orbit Thursday night atop a SpaceX rocket, kicking off a mission that will, among other things, demonstrate how future spacecraft can navigate without relying on GPS signals.<\/p>\n

The core of the navigation experiment is what the Space Force calls the \u201cworld\u2019s highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever used in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is one of many payloads mounted on the military\u2019s X-37B spaceplane when it lifted off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:50 pm EDT Thursday (03:50 UTC Friday).<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 rocket steered downrange and headed northeast from Florida\u2019s Space Coast. The rocket\u2019s first stage booster detached and returned to an on-target landing at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while Falcon\u2019s upper stage propelled the X-37B into low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

Space Force officials declared the launch a success in a press release early Friday. This is the eighth flight of an X-37B spaceplane since the vehicle\u2019s debut in April 2010. The X-37B program consists of two Boeing-built spaceplanes, each resembling smaller, unpiloted solar-powered versions of NASA\u2019s retired space shuttle orbiters. The program is managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office in partnership with the Space Force.<\/p>\n

Military leaders tout the X-37B\u2019s purpose as a technological testbed that can ferry experiments from Earth to space and back. Many of the spaceplane\u2019s payloads have been classified, but officials typically identify a handful of unclassified experiments flying on each X-37B mission. Past X-37B missions have also deployed small satellites into orbit before returning to Earth for a runway landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, or Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.<\/p>\n

On this mission, the Space Force says the X-37B carries instrumentation to demonstrate quantum navigation, and a laser inter-satellite relay terminal to allow the spaceplane to connect with other spacecraft in orbit.<\/p>\n

The quantum sensor package will \u201cinform accurate unaided navigation in space by detecting rotation and acceleration of atoms without reliance on satellite networks like traditional GPS,\u201d the Space Force said in a statement before the launch.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Preparing for the worst<\/h2>\n

The Space Force operates the Global Positioning System satellite network to provide navigation services to ships, airplanes, and land vehicles. Originally conceived as a military service, GPS is now vital to everyday civilian life, whether it\u2019s in commercial aviation or finding directions to the nearest gas station.<\/p>\n

The essential nature of GPS signals make them a juicy target for jamming and spoofing, particularly in geopolitical hotspots such as war zones in the Middle East, Ukraine, and parts of Russia. A wider war between the United States and a powerful adversary, like Russia or China, would likely include attempts to disrupt GPS signals across more regions.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A quantum inertial sensor.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Defense Innovation Unit<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Recognizing the importance of GPS signals, the Space Force said the quantum sensor experiment on the X-37B spaceplane will test technology useful for navigation in \u201cGPS-denied environments.\u201d Quantum navigation could also help spacecraft navigate in deep space, around the Moon or other planets, where missions can\u2019t count on receiving GPS signals.<\/p>\n

The quantum experiment flying on the X-37B is the product of an initiative led by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Two companies, Vector Atomic and Honeywell Aerospace, worked together to develop and build an atomic gyroscope to undergo qualification for spaceflight.<\/p>\n

By measuring the rotation and acceleration of atoms, this new kind of gyroscope can sense motion with improved precision compared to conventional gyros flown on drones, airplanes, and satellites. The quantum payload on the X-37B packages the atomic gyro into an inertial measurement unit, a type of device used on many spacecraft to determine how they have moved through three-dimensional space, what direction they\u2019re heading, and how fast they\u2019re going.<\/p>\n

This experiment is part of the DIU\u2019s Transition of Quantum Sensing program, which plans to conduct field tests of quantum sensors in all military domains: land, sea, air, and space.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cQuantum inertial sensors are not only scientifically intriguing, but they also have direct defense applications,\u201d said Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, an Air Force engineer who manages the DIU\u2019s emerging technology portfolio. \u201cIf we can field devices that provide a leap in sensitivity and precision for observing platform motion over what is available today, then there\u2019s an opportunity for strategic gains across the DoD.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teaching an old dog new tricks<\/h2>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s twin X-37Bs have logged more than 4,200 days in orbit, equivalent to about 11-and-a-half years. The spaceplanes have flown in secrecy for nearly all of that time.<\/p>\n

The most recent flight, Mission 7, ended in March with a runway landing at Vandenberg after a mission of more than 14 months that carried the spaceplane higher than ever before, all the way to an altitude approaching 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers). The high-altitude elliptical orbit required a boost on a Falcon Heavy rocket.<\/p>\n

In the final phase of the mission, ground controllers commanded the X-37B to gently dip into the atmosphere to demonstrate the spacecraft could use \u201caerobraking\u201d maneuvers to bring its orbit closer to Earth in preparation for reentry.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An X-37B spaceplane is ready for encapsulation inside the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s payload fairing.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n US Space Force<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Now, on Mission 8, the spaceplane heads back to low-Earth orbit hosting quantum navigation and laser communications experiments. Few people, if any, envisioned these kinds of missions flying on the X-37B when it first soared to space 15 years ago. At that time, quantum sensing was confined to the lab, and the first laser communication demonstrations in space were barely underway. SpaceX hadn\u2019t revealed its plans for the Falcon Heavy rocket, which the X-37B needed to get to its higher orbit on the last mission.<\/p>\n

The laser communications experiments on this flight will involve optical inter-satellite links with \u201cproliferated commercial satellite networks in low-Earth orbit,\u201d the Space Force said. This is likely a reference to SpaceX\u2019s Starlink or Starshield broadband satellites. Laser links enable faster transmission of data, while offering more security against eavesdropping or intercepts.<\/p>\n

Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force\u2019s chief of space operations, said in a statement that the laser communications experiment \u201cwill mark an important step in the US Space Force\u2019s ability to leverage proliferated space networks as part of a diversified and redundant space architectures. In so doing, it will strengthen the resilience, reliability, adaptability and data transport speeds of our satellite communications architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US military\u2019s reusable winged spaceship rocketed back into orbit Thursday night atop a SpaceX rocket, kicking off a mission that will, among other things, demonstrate how future spacecraft can navigate without relying on GPS signals. The core of the navigation experiment is what the Space Force calls the \u201cworld\u2019s highest performing quantum inertial sensor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}