What was the US military’s secret space plane doing on its record-breaking mission?

A secret house aircraft operated by america House Pressure (USSF) has landed again on Earth after spending a report 908 days in orbit. However what it was doing above our heads stays shrouded in thriller.

The uncrewed X-37B house aircraft touched down at NASA’s Kennedy House Station on Nov. 12 at 5:22 a.m. ET, concluding the sixth mission that it and one other equivalent automobile have accomplished for the reason that first flight in 2010. Particulars on its actions throughout the record-smashing journey are sparse, however officers declare it was conducting a variety of scientific experiments at round 249 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.

The X-37B was first designed by Boeing for NASA, earlier than being tailored to be used by the usmilitary. It’s an airplane-spacecraft hybrid that in some ways resembles a miniature house shuttle. For its sixth mission, labeled as Orbital Take a look at Car-6 (OTV-6), it was launched vertically whereas perched atop an Atlas V rocket in Could 2020. The house aircraft has now spent roughly 10 years in orbit throughout all of its missions, protecting roughly 1.3 billion miles (2.1 billion km). The brand new 908-day flight smashes the 780-day report for an area aircraft in steady orbit, which was additionally set by the X-37B throughout an earlier mission.

Associated: 10 issues we all know concerning the secret X-37B house aircraft

“The X-37B continues to push the boundaries of experimentation, enabled by an elite authorities and business crew behind the scenes,” Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen, X-37B program director on the Air Pressure Speedy Capabilities Workplace, mentioned in a press release. “The power to conduct on-orbit experiments and produce them residence safely for in-depth evaluation on the bottom has confirmed priceless for the Division of the Air Pressure and scientific neighborhood. The addition of the service module on OTV-6 allowed us to host extra experiments than ever earlier than.”

The USA House Pressure has revealed just a few morsels of details about the experiments performed aboard the craft throughout its most up-to-date flight. These embody a take a look at by the U.S. Naval Analysis Laboratory that efficiently harvested gentle from the solar earlier than beaming it again to Earth as microwaves; and the deployment of an electromagnetically steered coaching satellite tv for pc designed by U.S. Air Pressure cadets. NASA additionally supplied an experiment, known as Supplies Publicity and Expertise Innovation in House (METIS-2), that researched the consequences of house on completely different supplies.

No different particulars of the experiments on board have been revealed, though this hasn’t stopped rivals from partaking in hypothesis. Dmitry Rogozin, the previous head of Russia’s Roscosmos house company, claimed in an April interview with the Russian state-owned information channel Russia-24 that the craft might be getting used for spying or for carrying weapons of mass destruction. Chinese language navy professional and commentator Music Zhongping echoed this sentiment, telling the South China Morning Put up that the craft’s capacity to change its orbit mid-flight gave it the flexibility to spy on different satellites or on Earth-based targets, in addition to launch assaults from orbit.

“If the X-37B will be loaded with small satellites, it can be loaded with weapons. It could additionally have the ability to be fitted with robotic arms to seize different satellites which are in orbit,” Music mentioned.

Former Pentagon official Heather Wilson has additionally remarked on the craft’s capacity to change its orbit, a functionality she mentioned was because of the important drag generated by its low Earth orbit.

“Which suggests our adversaries do not know — and that occurs on the far aspect of the Earth from our adversaries — the place it should come up subsequent,” Wilson mentioned on the Aspen Safety Discussion board in 2019. “And we all know that that drives them nuts. And I am actually glad about that.”

China additionally has a secret house aircraft, which was launched into orbit from a Lengthy March 5B rocket on Aug. 4. Very like the X-37B, a lot of what it’s doing in orbit is unknown.

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