After a series of delays, the Space Force’s secretive X-37B orbital test vehicle was finally launched into space for its seventh experimental mission, the service announced Thursday.
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket hoisted the unmanned space plane into orbit Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after unspecified ground equipment issues and bad weather forced the company to push back the launch, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 7.
Although details about the latest mission have been largely kept behind closed doors, the Space Force said in November that some tests will include “operating in new orbital regimes, experimenting with space domain awareness technologies and investigating the radiation effects to NASA materials.”
“This was a very important mission and our teams worked shoulder-to-shoulder to ensure a successful launch,” Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, commander of Space Launch Delta 45, said in a statement. “Our national security space missions are the most stressing within our launch portfolio, and we have multiple world class organizations that come together to make the magic happen.”
"To make the magic happen."
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