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Artist's rendering of the X-37B conducting an aerobraking maneuver.
The Pentagon’s X-37B spaceplane will begin executing a series of aerobraking maneuvers to change orbit in what the U.S. Space Force described Oct. 10 as “first-of-a-kind” actions.
The Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) will conduct a series of passes that use the drag of the Earth’s atmosphere to allow it to change orbit while limiting its fuel use. The aerobraking attempt will allow the spaceplane to dispose of service module components in accordance with space debris mitigation standards, then continue with its mission, the Space Force said in an announcement.
The service maintains two Boeing-built unmanned, reusable X-37B spacecraft. The current mission, its seventh, was launched Dec. 28, 2023, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. During the mission, the Space Force has conducted radiation effect experiments and tested space domain awareness technologies in a highly elliptical orbit, the release says.
The Defense Department has kept the spaceplane’s capabilities and mission objectives largely under wraps since its first launch in 2010.
“As a test program, the X-37B team is constantly learning about the vehicles’ performance and upgrading with improvements when appropriate,” a Space Force spokesperson said in an Oct. 10 email to Aviation Week. The vehicle’s sixth mission (OTV-6), which launched May 17, 2020, and successfully ended Nov. 12, 2022, was the first to introduce a service module attached to the aft of the vehicle that could expand the number of experiments that could be hosted during a mission.
At the end of OTV-6, the service module separated from the vehicle as the X-37B made its way back to Earth. The spacecraft could not land with the module attached due to the aerodynamic forces experienced upon reentry.
The Space Force would not say whether the X-37B had already moved into a lower orbit to perform the aerobraking maneuvers. Once the maneuvers are complete, the OTV will resume testing and experimentation until those objectives are met, and will then deorbit and return to Earth.
Service officials have identified on-orbit maneuvering as a critical capability needed to conduct counterspace operations and to better protect and defend U.S. space assets.
Aerobraking enables spacecraft to move across multiple orbital regimes. “This is the first time the U.S. Space Force and the X-37B have attempted to carry out this dynamic aerobraking maneuver while in orbit around the Earth,” the spokesperson said.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said the unique maneuvers by the X-37B are “an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain.”
“Space is a vast and unforgiving environment where testing technologies is critical to the success of future endeavors,” said Michelle Parker, vice president of Boeing’s Space Mission Systems, in a statement. “There is no other space platform as capable, flexible and maneuverable as the X-37B, and its next demonstration will be another proof point that this test vehicle sets the pace of innovation.”
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office manages the X-37B program. It was designed as a variant of NASA’s X-37A vehicle, and is boosted into space via a launch vehicle, and then lands back on Earth as a spaceplane.
The X-37B launched on its first mission in April 2010. In the six missions completed to date, the OTV has remained in orbit for between 224 and 908 days per sortie. The current OTV-7 mission has remained in orbit for more than 286 days.
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