After seven test flights, Boeing is finally starting to open its heavy military aircraft. The company has released a video detailing the test steps the vehicle takes in space to change its orbit.
Boeing recently posted a short, two-minute video on X, featuring the X-37B spacecraft in action. The spacecraft performed a “first of its kind demonstration” to lower its altitude using atmospheric drag, from a highly elliptical orbit to a new target orbit, the company explained to X.
🚀#X37B it currently performs advanced aerobraking maneuvers, taking it into an elliptical orbit and lowering its altitude using less fuel.
This first-of-its-kind demonstration expands our knowledge of dynamic activities between pathways.
Watch to learn more: pic.twitter.com/EjmeSxoOuw
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) November 1, 2024
A US Space Force spacecraft, built by Boeing, began a series of orbital maneuvers known as aerobraking, which uses the pull of Earth’s atmosphere to change orbit while using less fuel.
The IX-37B was launched on December 29, 2023, aboard the Falcon heavy rocket for the first time. According to Boeing, the spacecraft has completed its time in an elliptical orbit, creating an oblong shape with an altitude perigee (when it is closest to Earth) and a high altitude apogee (the point when it is farthest from Earth). Now, the spacecraft is on its way to a new orbit using aerobraking.
Normally, a spacecraft would have to use its thrusters to burn several times to change its orbit, using its propellant. “When we go with the aerobrake, we use the drag of the atmosphere to effectively lower our apogee one at a time until we get to the orbital state we want to be in,” said John Ealy, a Boeing engineer, in a company video. “When we do this, we save huge amounts of propellant, which is why it’s so important to fly.”
Before Boeing released the video, there was little information shared about the spacecraft’s ongoing mission. The Space Force has only revealed that its vehicle will operate in a new orbital configuration and conduct experiments with “spatial awareness technology.” It is not clear what that technology is. On its seventh mission, the spacecraft is also carrying a NASA experiment designed to expose plant seeds to the hazardous radiation environment of long-duration spaceflight to collect data for future crewed missions.
The first IX-37B was launched in April 2010, and spent 224 days in orbit on its first test flight. It has certainly come a long way since then. The IX-37B was launched in May 2020 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on its sixth mission, and remained in orbit for 908 days before arriving at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in November 2022, surpassing its previous record of 780 consecutive days in -orbit. .
Space planes are hybrid launch vehicles, operating in orbit like a spacecraft with the ability to land on the ground like a conventional plane. China is in the midst of testing its space shuttle, the Shenlong, which has just completed its third mission after spending 268 days in orbit. Naturally, China is also very secretive about its used car.
The Space Force’s IX-37B has now spent a little more than 10 months in orbit, with no clear indication yet of when the spacecraft will end its seventh mission. The orbital direction is bringing it closer to home, which is a possible indication that the current mission may end early on the spacecraft compared to its last period.