Featuring the U.S. Space Force logo for the first time, the encapsulated X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for the USSF-52 mission is due to launch Dec. 7.
The U.S. Space Force plans to launch its next X-37B mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, aiming for a new orbit.
The mission, known as USSF-52, will be the seventh for the two-vehicle fleet of Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles (OTV). Liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for Dec. 7.
The 29-ft. reusable robotic spaceplanes, which resemble miniature space shuttles, are designed to test technologies, deploy payloads and other activities in Earth orbit. The six previous X-37B missions were conducted in low Earth orbit. The program’s seventh flight is aiming for a different but undisclosed orbit, with launch onboard a Falcon Heavy.
The first mission in 2020 lasted eight months. The most recent flight, OTV-6, spanned 908 days in orbit.
OTV-6 was the first mission to introduce a service module—a ring attached to the rear of the vehicle, expanding the number of hosted experiments, which included the Naval Research Laboratory’s Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module experiment that transformed solar power into radio-frequency microwave energy.
OTV-6 also hosted two NASA experiments to study the results of radiation and other space effects on a materials sample plate and seeds used to grow food. The X-37B also deployed FalconSat-8, a small satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy and sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
OTV-7’s manifest includes experiments involving technologies for space domain awareness and investigating how radiation affects plant seeds and other materials provided by NASA. “We are excited to expand the envelope of the reusable X-37B’s capabilities, using the flight-proven service module and Falcon Heavy rocket to fly multiple cutting-edge experiments for the Department of the Air Force and its partners,” Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen, the X-37B program director, said in a statement.
A Falcon Heavy, comprising three modified Falcon 9 first-stage boosters, can lift more than 140,000 lb. to low Earth orbit, where all of the previous X-37B missions have taken place, and nearly 59,000 lb. to a geostationary transfer orbit. Air Force Space Command awarded the classified mission, now known as USSF-52, to SpaceX in 2018 under a contract worth $130 million.
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