A secret spaceplane operated by the United States Space Force (USSF) has landed on Earth after spending a record 908 days in orbit. But what it does while flying overhead remains a mystery.
The uncrewed X-37B spaceplane landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Station at 05:22 on November 12, completing the sixth mission it and another similar vehicle have completed since the first flight in 2010. There aren’t many details on what happened during the record-breaking trip, but officials say it conducted a series of scientific experiments some 400 kilometers above Earth.
The X-37B was originally designed by Boeing for NASA before being adapted for use by the US military. This vehicle appears to be an aircraft-spacecraft hybrid, resembling a miniature space shuttle in many ways. For its sixth mission, classified as Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (OTV-6), it was launched vertically in May 2020 while attached to an Atlas V rocket. The spaceplane spent nearly 10 years in orbit during all its missions, flying about 2.1 billion km. The new 908-day flight broke the 780-day record for a spaceplane in continuous orbit, which had been broken by the X-37B during a previous mission.
“The X-37B continues to push the boundaries of experiments provided by an elite government and behind-the-scenes industry team,” said Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Fritschen, X-37B program director at the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. “The ability to safely bring it home for in-depth analysis on the ground has proven valuable to the Department of the Air Force and the scientific community. The addition of the service module to OTV-6 has allowed us to host more experiments than ever before.”
Spaceplane under discussion: X-37BWhat was the mission of the X-37B space plane?
The United States Space Force provided only a few details about the experiments performed on the vehicle during its most recent flight. These include a test by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory that successfully collects light from the sun before sending it back to Earth as microwaves, and the deployment of an electromagnetically guided training satellite designed by U.S. Air Force cadets. NASA also provided an experiment called Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space (METIS-2), which explores the effects of space on different materials.
No other details of the experiments on the vehicle have been disclosed, but that hasn’t stopped competitors from speculating. Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, claimed in an interview with Russian state news channel Russia-24 in April that the vehicle could be used to carry espionage or weapons of mass destruction. Chinese military expert and commentator Song Zhongping echoed this claim, telling the South China Morning Post that the aircraft’s ability to change its trajectory during flight could give it the ability to spy on other satellites or Earth-based targets, as well as launch attacks from orbit.
“If small satellites can be loaded onto the X-37B, weapons can also be loaded. It can also be fitted with robotic arms to capture other satellites in orbit,” Song said.
Former Pentagon official Heather Wilson also noted its ability to change the plane’s trajectory. She said this ability is due to friction in low Earth orbit.
“This means our enemies don’t know where to go next – and this is happening on the far side of Earth from our enemies,” Wilson said at the Aspen Security Forum in 2019. And we know it drives them crazy. And I’m really happy with that,” he says.
China also has a secret spaceplane launched into orbit on August 4 from the Long March 5B rocket. Much of what this vehicle does in orbit, like the X-37B, is unknown.
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