You can watch videos of SpaceX’s latest launches, but don’t expect to see footage of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle.
Space.com reported that SpaceX – a company owned by Elon Musk that provides launches, spacecraft and satellites – shut down its livestream of the Falcon Heavy launch before the X-37B was deployed. Its report said the livestream was shut down at the request of the U.S. Space Force.
In November, the Space Force announced that X-37B would be launched on a mission Dec. 7 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. According to Space.com, the mission was delayed for weeks due to bad weather and a ground equipment issue.
“The X-37B Mission 7 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, designated USSF-52, with a wide range of test and experimentation objectives,” the Space Force said. “These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA.”
When X-37B completed its 6th mission last year, Space Force described it as an “unmanned, reusable spaceplane,” and Space.com has described it as “robotic.”
CNN reported that the X-37B is on a “secret” mission. NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao told the outlet that the spacecraft has been in operation since 2010.
While the mission is classified, Chiao said the fact that the X-37B launched on Falcon Heavy indicates that it is going into a higher orbit than it has in previous missions.
“It’s probably going into a new regime in space,” said the astronaut.
Falcon Heavy is one of the most powerful operational rockets and can lift 142,000 pounds into orbit, per SpaceX. It is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. That’s equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft.
“We are excited to expand the envelope of the reusable X-37B’s capabilities, using the flight-proven service module and Falcon Heavy rocket to fly multiple cutting-edge experiments for the Department of the Air Force and its partners,” said Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen, the X-37B Program Director.
Space Force said the OTV-7 mission is expected to expand “knowledge of the space environment by experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies,” in a series of tests that it described as “integral in ensuring safe, stable, and secure operations in space for all users of the domain.”
An example of a previous X-37B experiment is the Naval Research Laboratory’s Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module experiment that transformed solar power into radio frequency microwave energy. This time, one of the experiments is a NASA project to expose plant seeds to the harsh radiation environment of long duration-spaceflight, which builds off previous experiments with seeds.
According to SpaceX, the Falcon Heavy finally launched the USSF-52 mission to orbit just after 7 p.m. CT Thursday. Per the Associated Press, the mission is expected to last years.
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