Despite being a top secret, the Pentagon promises that its X-37B spaceplane will soon perform some incredible stunts in the upper atmosphere. According to a recent interview, the Department of Defense’s secret X-37B ship is scheduled to perform some aerobraking maneuvers as it passes through the Earth’s upper atmosphere, essentially using atmospheric drag to alter its orbit and save fuel.
Manufactured by Boeing, the reusable, unmanned craft is operated jointly by the Space Force and the Air Force. It has been in orbit on its latest mission since shortly before Christmas last year and was released just a few weeks after its Chinese counterpart, Shenlong.
Although we don’t know exactly what its purpose is or how long its current flight is supposed to last, the X-37B has repeatedly demonstrated that it is capable of staying in space for long periods of time. “This maneuver, The first of its kind, the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to operate in this challenging domain,” said General Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations for the division, in the aforementioned interview.
This new trick, which will make the space plane dips its wings into the atmosphere to reduce its speedis just another example of the technological prowess of the expensive X-37b, even if we don’t know exactly what its purpose will be: rocket science or war?
It’s also unclear when this new atmospheric aerobraking trick will take place.but military officials provided a preview of what will happen after the stunt in a statement.
“Once the aerobraking maneuver is completed, the X-37B will resume your testing and experimentation goals until they are met – the authorities explain in the statement -. At that point the vehicle will deorbit and execute a safe return as it has done during its six previous missions.”
Interestingly, the Space Force also admitted to some of the secret space plane’s current operations. During its nine months in orbit, X-37B has “conducted experiments on the effects of radiation and has been testing space domain awareness technologies in a highly elliptical orbit.