Ten days later, the US Air Force's X-37B spacecraft lifted off on its seventh mission, known as OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle)-7, early today (01:07 GMT).
The unmanned vehicle built by Boeing used SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket carrier from Kennedy Space Center for the first time, after it canceled two previous launch attempts, one due to poor weather conditions and the other due to problems tracking the operation remotely.
The reusable X-37B, after an in-atmospheric test launch, made its first orbital mission in April 2010 and has since flown again in December 2012, May 2015, September 2017, and May 2020, remaining in orbit for several months. The longest was the previous one, OTV-6 which took 908 days!
All of these missions remain classified, with the US Air Force and the Pentagon never releasing more than public reports on the experiments and tests they underwent.
According to US reports, and based on analyzes of X-37B financing (although this includes secret funds), OTV-7 will likely be the last.
It is noteworthy that a few hours after the launch of the X-37B, which was No. 97the For SpaceX this year, 98 followedthe From the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Station on a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites.
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