A secretive Space Force ship has returned to earth after spending 434 days in orbit conducting mysterious tests.
The Boeing-made X-37B vessel was quietly launched by SpaceX in 2023 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and remained in orbit until Friday morning when it touched down at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
USSF landed the flight to exercise the ship’s rapid ability to launch and recover its systems across multiple sites, the agency said in a statement.
This is the seventh successful test flight of one of these vehicles, Space Force officials said.
“Mission 7 broke new ground by showcasing the X-37B’s ability to flexibly accomplish its test and experimentation objectives across orbital regimens,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in a statement.
“The successful execution of the aerobreaking maneuver underscores the US Space Force’s commitment to pushing the bounds of novel space operation in a safe and responsible manner,” the general concluded.
Other Space Force officials called the successful test a “significant milestone,” in the agency’s mission to create a versatile, reusable, and sustainable fleet.
With the prolonged orbital flight, Space Force engineers were testing the ship’s “space domain awareness technology” through a bevy of experiments, the Trump-made military branch said in their statement Friday.
AP
During the 434-day journey, X-37B successfully demonstrated the ability to change orbits by using atmospheric drag to slow down, Space Force officials boasted.
This method of trajectory-change also preserved fuel, allowing the mission to last for the extended period.
Appearing somewhat worn from its extended travels, the unmanned, 29-foot long, 15-foot wide spacecraft bore a striking image on the tarmac of Vanderberg.
It resembles the famous NASA space shuttle in that it is solar-powered, though it notably lacks any sort of portholes and is considerably smaller.
