What is the super-secret mission of America’s X-37B space drone?
- The X-37B, a diminutive spacecraft with less than a 4.5-metre wingspan, has been the subject of intense speculation since its maiden mission in 2010
The X-37B – the US Air Force’s ultra-secretive, astronaut-free spacecraft that looks like a miniaturised space shuttle – just broke its own flight record of 719 days in continuous orbit.
What, exactly, the experimental spacecraft has been doing for almost exactly two years straight has puzzled analysts who can only speculate about the Pentagon’s ambitions over the low-orbit vehicle.
The US Air Force has said “the primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth”.
In September 2017, US defence officials said the X-37B’s mission – its fifth since 2010 – would demonstrate the potential for getting to space quickly and “on-orbit testing of emerging space technologies” while testing experimental electronics in zero gravity.
Its playground is an important one, and may provide clues to the spacecraft’s true mission and what payload it may carry.