Air Force X-37B Launched on Secret Mission

 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 booster lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Complex 41 on Thursday evening, sending the X-37B experimental space vehicle on its first test flight.

Started by NASA in the late 1990s, the X-37 program was adopted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and later transferred to the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, culminating in its launch at 7:52 p.m. EDT.

“After a tumultuous history of sponsorship, it’s great to see the X-37 finally get to the launch pad and get into space,” Gary Payton, undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Programs, told reporters in a conference call before liftoff.

The 11,000-lb. X-37B was launched aboard an Atlas V 501, which can carry 21,600 pounds to low Earth orbit. It successfully separated from the Centaur upper stage 20 minutes after launch. The X-37B payload, experiments and planned orbital operations are classified.

“We’ll have a set of test objectives for the on-orbit activities,” Payton said. “The top priority technology demonstration is, on this first flight, the vehicle itself … proving that the vehicle can get up in space, do a job, get back down.

“Then, probably the most important demonstration is again on the ground,” he added. “Once we get the bird back, see what it really takes to turn this bird around and get it ready to go fly again.”

The goal of the program is trim turnaround time between space flights from months to days, at a fraction of the cost of preparing space shuttles for flight.

“The top priority is an inexpensive turnaround,” Payton said. “Can we do these new technologies, perform properly on orbit, and get the bird back on the ground? Do we have to do a lot of tile replacement, like we had to early in the shuttle era? Do we have to do a lot of servicing? If that’s the case it makes this sort of vehicle less attractive to us in the future.”