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The X-37b Space level of the US Space Force is encapsulated in front of one of its starts in payload cladding. | Credit: US Space Force/Boeing
The secret X-37B area level of the US Space Force is ready to start the orbit again.
The X-37b is scheduled to take off on a rocket from SpaceX Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center of NASA in Florida on August 21, the Space Force officers announced on Monday (July 28th).
This will be the eighth mission for the robot X-37B, which is also known as the orbital test vehicle. This is how the Space Force calls the upcoming flight OTV-8.
OTV-8 will start 5.5 months after the recent return of the X-37B from space. The 434-day mission OTV-7 has completed this runway landing. The officials of the space force did not say how long OTV-8 is expected.
We know a little about the payloads on the 29-foot X-37b (8.8 meters), which looks like a miniature version of Nasa’s old Space Shuttle orbiter. OTV-8 will help to demonstrate some new technologies, including laser communication and a quantum interior sensor, as from the Space Force’s explanation of July 28th.
The X-37B will carry out examinations using “the highest performance quantum interior sensor that has ever been tested in space”, according to the officers of the Space Force. The mission will also concentrate on a laser communication experiment, which includes “” increased commercial satellite networks in Low Earth Orbit (Leo) “, which is likely to refer to the huge Starlink width network from SpaceX.
“The laser communication demonstration of OTV-8 will mark an important step in the ability of the US space force to use space networks as part of a diversified and redundant space architectures,” said Chance Saltzman, the head of space for space substances, in the explanation.
Laser communication has advantages for conventional radio frequencies, including more robust data functions and less susceptibility to hidden transmission hearing.
If you use constellations such as Starlink, which currently contain more than 8,000 operating satellites in Leo, “you will mark an important step in the ability of the US world space force, increased space networks as part of a diversified and unnecessary space architectures,” said Saltzman. “Resilience, reliability, adaptability and data transport speeds will strengthen our satellite communication architecture.”
Another look at the X-37b, which is about 8.8 meters long. | Credit: US Space Force
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The Quantum Internial Sensor of X-37B tests the reliability of navigating in the room without conventional GPS. Instead, the sensor evaluates its orbital coordinates by measuring the rotation and acceleration of nearby atoms.
Saltzman called the sensor “a welcome step forward for operational resilience”. Such a technology could enable a probe to navigate successfully, where there are no GPS networks such as moon, Mars and other Deple Space goals.
