SpaceX launches Us Space Force’s reusable X-37B on classified long-duration mission
(MENAFN) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the U.S. Space Force’s reusable X-37B space plane late Thursday, embarking on a classified long-duration mission. This marks the eighth flight of the program since its inception in 2010.
The mission follows the X-37B’s previous 434-day flight, which concluded last March, according to reports.
Due to the sensitive nature of the operation, SpaceX ended its live coverage after the Falcon 9’s first stage landed and did not release information about the second stage, the deployment of the Boeing-built space plane, or its orbit.
Officials from the Space Force and Boeing confirmed that the X-37B is carrying two experimental payloads.
One experiment will test high-speed laser communications between the space plane and small relay satellites that form part of an expanding space network.
The second is a quantum navigation sensor, which is designed to measure a spacecraft’s precise location by "detecting rotation and acceleration of atoms without reliance on satellite networks like traditional GPS," according to the Space Force.
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