SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket took off this Thursday night to transport the US military space drone X-37B on a research mission, the company owned by magnate Elon Musk announced.
After weeks of successive delays, the rocket took off at 8:07 p.m. (01:07 GMT on Friday) from the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. The takeoff was broadcast live on the SpaceX website. No information was provided about the fate of the space drone, an unmanned shuttle that is on its seventh mission.
In the statement reporting the launch, SpaceX limited itself to citing the code name given by the Pentagon to the mission: USSF-52. The Pentagon had previously announced that the seventh mission, X-37B, would include “multiple cutting-edge experiments.” These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain knowledge technologies and investigating the effects of radiation on materials provided by NASA, the Rapid Capabilities Office of the NASA had announced last month. United States Department of the Air Force.
According to the statement, it is the first time that the X-37B was launched with a Falcon Heavy, one of the most powerful rockets and capable of transporting utility loads of up to 26,700 kg to the depths of space.
Shrouded in the most absolute secrecy, the X-37B made its first flight in 2010 and has spent a total of more than ten years in space during its first six missions, according to its manufacturer, the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, after completing its sixth mission in November 2022. The X-37B was designed for the US Air Force by United Launch Alliance, a company jointly formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Its launch powered by the Falcon Heavy comes two weeks after China launched its own reusable robotic spacecraft, named Shenlong, into orbit on December 14. The state press agency Xinhua reported that for “a period of time” it was planned to carry out scientific experiments aimed at “providing technical support for the peaceful use of space.”