The US military's X-37B spaceplane has embarked on its new USSF-52 covert mission for the US Space Force, launching on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, writes UNN citing Space.com.
The launch was from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday night at 8:07 p.m. (03:07 p.m. December 29 Kyiv time) after weeks of delays. SpaceX's first two attempts to launch the secret military's X-37-B spaceplane earlier this month were delayed due to bad weather and problems with ground equipment.
Thursday's launch was the seventh X-37B launch to date, but it is the first flight on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, the second most powerful rocket currently in service (after NASA's Space Launch System).
It was SpaceX's 95th launch in 2023, and the next launch, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites, was just hours away.
SpaceX stopped live coverage of the Falcon Heavy launch before the X-37B spaceplane was put into its final orbit at the request of the U.S. Space Force.
The new X-37B mission, known as OTV-7 ("Orbital Test Vehicle-7") as well as USSF-52, will apparently take advantage of the rocket; the primary objectives of the mission "include operating a reusable spaceplane in novel orbital modes," Space Force officials wrote in a mission preview last month.
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