A secretive US government spaceplane has embarked on a classified mission aboard one of the world’s most powerful rockets.
The X-37B craft was launched from NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
It has been on six previous missions since 2010, most recently in 2020, but the rocket used on Thursday can take it further into space than ever before.
The Boeing-built vehicle, roughly the size of a small bus and resembling a miniature space shuttle, has stayed within Earth’s lower orbit until now – an altitude of below 1,200 miles.
But Falcon Heavy – composed of three rocket cores strapped together – is capable of carrying much heavier payloads more than 22,000 miles above the planet.
It’s led to speculation that X-37B could be destined for the orbit of more faraway locations, perhaps even Mars.
Few details have been revealed about the mission, which is operated by the US Space Force under the military’s National Security Space Launch programme.
Mission will test how plants may grow in space
X-37B is designed to conduct experiments in space, which this time will involve tests of “new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies”.
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