(Washington) A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket took off Thursday evening to transport the American military space drone X-37B to a research mission, announced the American company founded by Elon Musk.
After weeks of delays, the rocket departed at 8:07 p.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The liftoff was broadcast live on the SpaceX website.
No information was available on the destination of the space drone, an unmanned shuttle, for its seventh mission.
The Pentagon has released little information about the space drone and its new mission, initially scheduled to begin on December 7.
SpaceX simply cites the code name given by the Pentagon to the mission – USSF-52 – in its press release on the launch.
“Falcon Heavy launched the USSF-52 mission into orbit from launch pad 39A,” according to SpaceX.
The Pentagon previously announced that the seventh X-37B mission would feature “multiple cutting-edge experiments.”
“These tests include the operation of the reusable space plane in new orbital regimes, the experimentation of future technologies on knowledge of the space domain and the study of the effects of radiation on materials provided by NASA,” according to a statement released last month by the U.S. Department of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office.
The press release specified that this was the first time that the X-37B had been launched by a Falcon Heavy rocket, one of the most powerful in operation and capable of carrying loads of up to 26,700 kg far into space.
Surrounded by the greatest secrecy, the X-37B made its first flight in 2010 and spent a total of more than ten years in space during its first six missions, indicated at the end of its sixth mission in November 2022 its manufacturer, the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing.
The X-37B was designed for the United States Air Force by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
It is nine meters long, has a wingspan of 4.5 meters and is powered by solar panels.
Its launch by the Falcon Heavy rocket comes two weeks after China put its own space drone, named Shenlong, into orbit on December 14, for what the state agency New China called “a certain period of time” during which will be carried out scientific experiments “intended to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space”.