SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. This is the first time the X-37B has been launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket capable of sending the spacecraft into orbit higher than ever before, according to Reuters.
The X-37B spacecraft was launched by a Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA) on December 28.
The new X-37B launch comes after more than two weeks of false starts and delays. The Pentagon has not released many details about the seventh X-37B mission, which is being flown by the US Space Force under the military’s National Security Space Launch Program.
Previously, New Scientist quoted a well-informed source as saying that the upcoming X-37B flight will be the longest and highest journey since the first mission was deployed in April 2010. In the first 6 missions, the X-37B spent a total of 3,774 days in space, with the most recent mission lasting 908 days.
The X-37B spacecraft lands at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on May 7, 2017 after completing its fourth mission.
The first five missions were launched on Atlas V rockets before continuing into orbit on its own engines. The sixth mission used a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The seventh and likely final flight of the X-37B mission will require the Falcon Heavy rocket, which has three times the thrust of the Atlas V and Falcon 9 rockets.
The exact orbital range of previous missions is still unclear, but they were in low Earth orbit (less than 1,000 km above the ground). However, the Falcon Heavy rocket is more than capable of taking the X-37B much further, to the farthest edge of the solar system.
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