The mission deployed a small satellite known as FalconSat-8, which contained five experimental payloads, some developed by the U.S. "The incorporation of a service module on this mission enables us to continue to expand the capabilities of the spacecraft and host more experiments than any of the previous missions," Randy Walden, director and program executive officer for the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement. military revealed that the spy plane had a new service module attached to its rear that allowed for large numbers of experiments to be carried to orbit. Shortly before the most recent X-37B launch in 2020, the U.S. (Image credit: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center ) It can carry experimentsĪn artist's illustration of the U.S. "We can recognize a bit of the nose, payload bay and tail of this mini-shuttle, with even a sign of some smaller detail," he told Live Science at the time. Netherlands-based sky sleuth Cees Bassa did the same that year, Live Science previously reported.Īnd a Dutch skywatcher and satellite tracker named Ralf Vandebergh was able to photograph the robotic vehicle as it orbited overhead in 2019. The vehicle's launch times are publicly announced, which enabled satellite tracker Russell Eberst of Edinburgh, Scotland, to determine where it would be in the sky and see it through a telescope in October 2017.
Though it is a clandestine piece of military hardware, the X-37B is not immune to being spotted by civilian skywatchers. During its fifth mission in 2017, the military changed things up a bit and used a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to take it to orbit, according to. While the X-37B has typically ridden United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V booster into space, the vehicle is capable of being launched by different rockets. Space Force from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on May 17, 2020. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches an X-37B space plane on a classified mission for the U.S.
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