AFP – SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket blasted back into space on Thursday night to ferry the United States (US) military’s secretive X-37B drone to a research mission.
After weeks of delays, the rocket launched from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8.07pm in a liftoff livestreamed on SpaceX’s website.
It is unclear where exactly the uncrewed and autonomously operating spacecraft is headed on its seventh mission.
The Pentagon has released little information about the space drone and its mission, which was initially scheduled for December 7, and SpaceX only cited the Pentagon’s mission code name – USSF-52 – in its statement on the launch.
“Falcon Heavy launched the USSF-52 mission to orbit from Launch Complex 39A,” SpaceX said.
Earlier, the Pentagon had said the X-37B’s seventh mission would entail multiple cutting-edge experiments.
“These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA,” the US Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office said in a statement last month.
It added that this is the first time the X-37B is lifting off on a Falcon Heavy, one of the most powerful operational rockets, capable of carrying payloads of up to 26,700 kilogrammes deep into space.
About the size of a small bus, the X-37B US space drone looks like a mini version of the manned space shuttles retired in 2011. On previous missions, the X-37B has carried out tests for NASA on the impact of radiation on seeds and other materials.
