{"id":87879,"date":"2025-05-12T14:36:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/spacex-launch-secretive-us-spaceplane-launches-on-falcon-heavy-rocket-that-can-take-it-further-than-ever-before-science-tech-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T14:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:36:29","slug":"spacex-launch-secretive-us-spaceplane-launches-on-falcon-heavy-rocket-that-can-take-it-further-than-ever-before-science-tech-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/spacex-launch-secretive-us-spaceplane-launches-on-falcon-heavy-rocket-that-can-take-it-further-than-ever-before-science-tech-news\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launch: Secretive US spaceplane launches on Falcon Heavy rocket that can take it further than ever before | Science & Tech News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SpaceX launch: Secretive US spaceplane launches on Falcon Heavy rocket that can take it further than ever before | Science & Tech News<\/h2>\n

SpaceX launch: Secretive US spaceplane launches on Falcon Heavy rocket that can take it further than ever before | Science & Tech News<\/p>\n

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A secretive US government spaceplane has embarked on a classified mission aboard one of the world’s most powerful rockets.<\/p>\n

The X-37B craft was launched from NASA<\/strong>‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida<\/strong> on a SpaceX<\/strong> Falcon Heavy.<\/p>\n

It has been on six previous missions since 2010, most recently in 2020, but the rocket used on Thursday can take it further into space than ever before.<\/p>\n

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The Boeing<\/strong>-built vehicle, roughly the size of a small bus and resembling a miniature space shuttle, has stayed within Earth’s lower orbit until now – an altitude of below 1,200 miles.<\/p>\n

But Falcon Heavy – composed of three rocket cores strapped together – is capable of carrying much heavier payloads more than 22,000 miles above the planet.<\/p>\n

It’s led to speculation that X-37B could be destined for the orbit of more faraway locations, perhaps even Mars.<\/p>\n

Few details have been revealed about the mission, which is operated by the US<\/strong> <\/strong>Space Force under the military’s National Security Space Launch programme.<\/p>\n

Mission will test how plants may grow in space<\/strong><\/p>\n

X-37B is designed to conduct experiments in space, which this time will involve tests of “new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies”.<\/p>\n

One of its tasks that has been detailed is a NASA study to see how plant seeds are affected by extended exposure to harsh space radiation, with a view to possible long-term human missions to the moon and Mars<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Once its quest is complete, X-37B should return to Earth and land via a runway – much like a plane.<\/p>\n

But it’s not expected back until some time in 2026, with its last mission lasting more than two years.<\/p>\n

Across its six missions so far, it has spent over a decade in orbit.<\/p>\n

The launch – which was delayed several times due to technical issues and poor weather – comes two weeks after China<\/strong>‘s equally secretive Shenlong spaceplane was blasted into orbit.<\/p>\n

Also known as Divine Dragon, it was the reusable craft’s third mission since 2020.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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SpaceX launch: Secretive US spaceplane launches on Falcon Heavy rocket that can take it further than ever before | Science & Tech News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX launch: Secretive US spaceplane launches on Falcon Heavy rocket that can take it further than ever before | Science & Tech News SpaceX launch: Secretive US spaceplane launches on Falcon Heavy rocket that can take it further than ever before | Science & Tech News A secretive US government spaceplane has embarked on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7712],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}