The US Space Force announced the postponement of the highly anticipated launch of its elusive X-37B space plane. The mission, named USSF-52, was scheduled to take place on December 7, but has now been postponed to December 10.
The X-37B will be launched aboard NASA’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Changed launch schedules and availability at Launch Complex-39A (LC-39A) cited for date change, according to Space Force statement.
“We partner closely with our launch service providers, and the entire team is focused on executing a successful mission,” Adm. Christine Banzenhagen, of Space Launch Delta 45, said in an email to Space Systems Command (SSC).
The USSF-52 will launch on December 10 from KSC’s LC-39A, during an unspecified launch period. According to SSC’s email, these details will be released “closer to the launch date.”
Related: SpaceX will launch the Space Force’s mysterious X-37B spaceplane on a Falcon Heavy rocket
This will be the first launch of the reusable spaceplane on a Falcon Heavy rocket, which has implications for its secret mission. Five of the previous six X-37B launches were carried out using United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rockets; The rest flew on a Falcon 9.
During its last mission, the X-37B spent 908 days in orbit, then returned to Earth Land On 12 November 2022, it touched down on the runway at the previously used KSC airport Space ship Landing.
The Falcon Heavy, which combines three Falcon 9 boosters for the rocket’s first stage, can carry heavier payloads to higher orbits than both the Atlas V and Falcon 9, potentially launching the X-37B farther. space Ever flew. Although little is known about the spacecraft’s operational capabilities, some of the USSF-52 mission objectives include the X-37B “operating in new orbital systems,” Space Force Release indicated.
One of the unclassified flight experiments as part of USSF-52 is NASA“Seeds-2”, which will test the radiation effects of long-duration spaceflight on plant seeds. Other mission objectives, according to the Space Force, include “experimenting with space domain awareness technologies.”
A photo shared with this release shows the X-37B, now bearing the Space Force logo for the first time, standing next to one of the payload fascias, before it is encapsulated.
Although this is the Falcon Heavy’s first flight with the X-37B, it is not the rocket’s first launch for the Space Force, which has approved it. SpaceX To fly national security payloads using refurbished stages. The USSF-52 side-launching boosters have flown four previous missions, including two Space Force launches in November 2022 and January 2023, as well as the Hughes JUPITER 3 communications launch Satellites And NASA spirit investigation earlier this year.
