The X-37B space space plane takes a picture of Earth from orbit

“A more advanced spacecraft”

In 1999, NASA has chosen to design a tropical test vehicle that can be used to closely monitor and repair satellite.

Over the next four years, X-37 has undergone many design repetitions to achieve more dynamic design than the orbit of space shuttle. It was initially intended to launch from the bay of the goods in the space shuttle. But after the space shuttle was crashed and killed all the seven astronauts on the plane in 2003, it was redesigned for a different missile, making it smaller and more independent.

The project cost approximately 192 million dollars, and Boeing received another contract worth $ 301 million in 2002 through the space launch initiative, a joint research effort led by NASA and the Ministry of Defense. The X-37 project was transferred to the advanced research projects agency in 2004 and became classified due to its military applications.

In 2006, the Air Force announced the development of its own spacecraft variable, known as X-37B, designed to work with a tropical speed of about 17,500 miles per hour for up to 270 days.

The length of the non -compact test vehicle was about 30 feet and had its wings about 15 feet. The weight of the maximum take off was 11,000 pounds, and it could accommodate loads of up to 500 pounds.

The X-37B program focuses on “the most advanced spacecraft”, and the X-37B program will focus on “reducing risks and experimenting and developing the concept of operating for reusable space techniques, to support long-term development space targets,” said Secretary Michael Win in 2006.

Space

X-37B has been assigned to multiple tropical tasks, starting with test materials under the space conditions for the release of a small satellite with its own experimental loads.

The first X-37B was launched in the orbit of Cape Canaveral in April 2010. The test vehicle spent 225 days in space and returned in December 2010 after making many changes in orbit, despite the classification of the data it collected during its first mission.

In 2020, the sixth mission of X-37B included the transfer of a small service unit to space for the first time. Falconsat-8 was a small satellite developed by the American Air Force Academy carrying five experimental loads. After 908 days of the record in space, X-37B completed its mission and landed at the Kennedy Space Center in November 2022.

Since a lot of X-37B is classified, secrecy has been speculated about the purpose of its mission groups, with some speculation that the space level can be an arms platform or used for intelligence, monitoring and surveillance from space.

It was launched from a Spacex missile

X-37B began its seventh and current mission in December 2023, where it was launched from the heavy missile, it was manufactured and launched by Elon Musk’s Spacex.

Falcon Heavy is able to launch more than 22,000 feet above the ground, thus X-37B has been launched higher than any SpacePlane and developed in a very English orbit.

The purpose of its seventh mission was to experience the “future space awareness techniques” and analysis of radiation effects on plant seeds during a space space, according to space power.

Another main goal for the current task of X-37B is to improve and implement new maneuvers called Aerobraking, using the Earth’s atmosphere to switch quickly into a low orbit and get rid of the service unit components safely using the minimum fuel. The orbit change is a decisive capacity if using SpacePlane to upgrade American satellites or disable its enemies.

US X-37B opposite China Chenlong

X-37B is famous for conducting scientific tests and experiments in space, but details about their military applications remain very classified.

Space-based technology works for decades, including X-37B, on the United States is an advantage on the new border of the tropical war. China closely follows behind the United States with its spacecraft known as Shenlong, which was named after a dragon deity in Chinese myths.

Like X-37B, much about the plane is still shrouded in mysterious. Senlong was first announced in 2007, but China has publicly revealed a few details about the secret space program. There are no well-known images of Shenlong, and among the few capabilities that are known about the uninhabited car is that it can publish through a missile, rapidly maneuver in space, and spread loads in space, such as X-37B.

During the first tropical trip in September 2020, Shenlong remained in space for two days to launch an orbit object before returning to Earth.

Its second launch lasted in August 2022 for a long time, as it was working in a nine months. According to the Chinese SpacePlane practiced maneuvers to spread and restore the sub -vaccine, the processes that require similar technologies to capture the enemy satellite.

In December 2023, the third task of Shanlong, which started after only seven months after two, was a similar goal, as a goods grip was launched to test proximity operations. She completed her mission after nine months in space, and returned to China last September.