US military spaceship on a secret mission

He carries out his seventh mission – wearing a veil of mystery – X-37B robotic spaceship For the US Army after its launch on Thursday (12/28) from Florida.

Launching the spacecraft, and the mission it must perform Secret experimentsIt was implemented on a Falcon Heavy rocket SpaceX.

As in previous missions, there is no one on board the small space shuttle.

Heavy Falcon, consisting of Three missile cores They were strapped together and launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral Delay of more than two weeks Due to technical problems, he noted guardian.

Three previous attempts were canceled due to bad weather and unspecified technical problems, forcing the crew on Earth to return the spacecraft to the hangar before proceeding with the launch on Thursday.

What will the shipment include?

This launch comes two weeks after Launch of China's robotic spacecraftKnown as “Xinlong” or “Divine Dragon,” for its third mission in orbit as of 2020, it is another dimension to the battle between the United States and China for space dominance.

The Pentagon has revealed Few details About the X-37B mission, conducted by the US Space Force as part of the Military National Security Space Launch Program.

The launch was witnessed on Thursday Seventh flight of the X-37Bwhich has been in orbit for more than 10 years since its debut in 2010.

The final flight, the longest to date, took two and a half years before returning to the runway at Kennedy a year ago.

The Pentagon did not say how high the spacecraft would reach this time. But in a statement last month, the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office said Mission 7 would include testing “New Orbital Systems, Experimenting with Future Space Domain Awareness Technologies.”

The X-37B is also carrying a NASA experiment to study how to do this Plant seeds are affected From prolonged exposure to the harsh environment of space radiation. The ability to grow plants in space could be a major development for feeding astronauts during future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

China's secret Shenlong ship was launched into space on December 14 aboard a Long March 2F rocket, a less powerful launch system than SpaceX's Falcon Heavy that is believed to be limited to delivering payloads to low Earth orbit.

However, Space Force Gen. B. Chance Saltzman told reporters at an industry conference earlier this month that he expects China to launch the Shenlong missile at about the same time as the X-37B flight, in a competitive move he said.

“It is not surprising that the Chinese are very interested in our spacecraft. We are very interested in them.” Saltzman said, according to statements published in Air & Space Forces, an American magazine specializing in aviation and space.

“These are two of the most closely watched objects in orbit while they are in orbit. It is probably no coincidence that they are trying to match us in timing and sequence.”He said.

Its scheduled duration The last mission of the X-37B It has not been announced, but is likely to last until June 2026 or later, given the prevailing pattern of consecutively longer flights.

Made by Boeing, The X-37B resembles NASA's retired space shuttles, but is only a quarter of its size, at 9 meters long. There is no need for astronauts – the X-37B has an autonomous landing system.

They take off vertically like rockets but land horizontally like airplanes, and are designed to orbit at an altitude of between 240 and 800 kilometers (150 to 500 miles).