X-37B, The secret space plane of the US Space Force will fly again soon.
On Monday, Space Force announced that it would fly a small shuttle-shaped vehicle on its eighth mission next month. The launch of the vehicle on the Falcon 9 rocket was originally scheduled to start August 21 in Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
There are two active X-37Bs in the Space Force, both built by Boeing. It made its debut in April 2010. Since then, the two untowed spacecraft have had long flights. In a 908-day period, the first flight was made from 2020 to 2022. The second flight, after 434 days in orbit, landed at the Vandenberg Space Force Base on March 7.
The first of the two vehicles could be about 29 feet (9 meters) long, about the length of one of the NASA space shuttles, about a quarter of the quarter.
Some details about upcoming flights
For the past decade and a half, the Space Force has provided limited information on the purpose of this spacecraft, the purpose of the confidential payload, and only provides limited information about the purpose of each flight.
However, for this flight, the OTV-8, the military provided more details about its intentions. The vehicle will fly using a service module that will expand its experimental capabilities so that the space plane can accommodate payloads from the Air Force Research Laboratory and Defense Innovation Unit.
The objectives of the mission include the testing of “high bandwidth wide inter-satellite laser communication technology”.
“The laser communication demonstration of OTV-8 will mark an important step in the ability of the U.S. space force to leverage commercial space networks as part of a proliferation, diversification and redundant space architecture,” said Chance Saltzman, head of Space Space Operations in the general statement. “Doing so, it will enhance the resilience, reliability, adaptability and data transfer speed of our satellite communications architecture.”
Navigate in a world without GPS
The space plane will also promote the development of new navigation technologies based on electromagnetic wave interference. Space Force news release describes it as “the best quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space.”
Boeing has previously tested a quantum inertia measurement unit that uses atomic interference to detect rotation and acceleration on conventional aircraft. Now, advanced versions of the technology are on the space to prove its survivability. The purpose of space testing is to demonstrate precise location, navigation and time in an environment where GPS services are not available.
“The most important thing is: testing in a controversial environment helps navigate in a controversial environment,” Salzman said in a social media post on Monday.
Quantum inertial sensors can also be near the moon, without comparable GPS capabilities or further exploration of the solar system.
It is worth noting that the small X-37B is back to the mid-sized rocket launch through this new mission. In its latest flight ending in March, the spacecraft was launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time. This allows the X-37B to fly over low Earth orbit and reach an elliptical high Earth orbit.
This story originally appeared in ARS Technica.
