The Secretive Spaceplane of the U.S. Space Force Conducts First-of-Its-Kind Maneuvers
Called aerobraking, the technique allows the highly classified craft to change orbit without using propellant—and some are wondering why the agency has let us in on this news
Recently, the United States Space Force surprised space travel enthusiasts and professionals alike by revealing details about its mysterious spaceplane’s seventh mission. In a statement released on October 10, the agency announced that its Boeing-made X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle would conduct a series of unprecedented aerobraking maneuvers to change its orbital path around Earth. This month, Boeing Space said on social media that the procedure had begun.
“This first-of-a kind maneuver from the X-37B is 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,” B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, said in the statement.
The news is a rare offering of information from the Space Force and Boeing, which are incredibly secretive about the X-37B’s activities. The craft launched on its first mission in 2010, but few details have been revealed about its highly classified purpose in space.
The newly described aerobraking maneuver allows the X-37B spaceplane to change its orbit by using the Earth’s atmospheric drag—the friction caused by molecules in the atmosphere. Normally, spacecrafts have to fire their thrusters to achieve a shift in orbit, which uses up propellant and thus can only be done a limited number of times, per Space.com’s Brett Tingley.
“When we aerobrake, we utilize atmospheric drag to effectively step down our apogee”—the farthest point from Earth in the orbit—“one pass at a time, until we get to the orbital regime that we want to be in,” John Ealy, a Boeing engineer, says in a video released by the company. “When we do this, we save enormous amounts of propellant, and that’s really why aerobraking is important.”
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the race to space is on and I thought the Russians would be leading. What I care most about space travel is not thrill but if we can manage to bring space resources to Earth. Scarcity and poverty can end as long as those who bring it say so