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The fifth and final Falcon Heavy mission of 2023 is preparing to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center carrying the X-37B, a secretive spaceplane operated by the U.S. military. The mission, code-named U.S. Space Force (USSF)-52, is about for liftoff during a ten-minute window on Monday, Dec. 10, that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 UTC).
The mission had been scheduled to liftoff Sunday evening but was delayed 24 hours. In a post on social media, SpaceX didn’t provide a selected reason for the delay, but stated it might allow “time to finish additional pre-launch check outs.”
This can be the seventh mission for the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) since its space debut in 2010 and the primary time it has flown aboard the triple-booster Falcon Heavy rocket. SpaceX launched the fifth OTV mission in September 2017 on a Falcon 9. The opposite five flights of the spaceplane used the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 501 rocket.
Spaceflight Now can have live coverage of the mission starting an hour and half-hour ahead of liftoff.
As with prior flights of the military spaceplane, much in regards to the mission stays undisclosed, including it’s orbit and activities after liftoff. In an announcement the U.S. Space Force said: “The usage of a Falcon Heavy rocket will expand the X-37B flight envelope, launching right into a latest orbital regime, and enabling unique experimentation opportunities for the X-37B.”
Based on notices issued to mariners and aviators related to the impact zones for the primary and second stages, the Falcon Heavy will take a northerly trajectory from Cape Canaveral and might perform a so-called ‘dog leg’ maneuver to achieve a high inclination orbit.
Charles Galbreath, a Senior Fellow for Space Studies on the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence (MI-SPACE), said that from an outsider’s perspective, he’s interested to see how these “latest orbital regimes” play out for the vehicle.
“The undeniable fact that it’s on a Falcon Heavy suggests to me that you just’re not only going to a medium Earth orbit altitude here,” Galbreath said.
Galbreath spent 30 years as a part of the U.S. Air Force after which the Space Force, but all the time in a space-focused role. His last role before retiring from lively service was because the Deputy Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for the Space Force.
Throughout the 90s and early 00s, he was also a part of a precursor to the X-37B, the Boeing-built X-40 Space Maneuver Vehicle. That work as a part of the Developmental Planning Directorate on the Los Angeles-based Space and Missile System Center helped test some functions that might be explored further with the X-37B.
“There have been a number of great studies that were done. We identified a wide selection of potential missions from ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) to position, navigation and timing to communications generally in addition to the potential for science and technology experiments, which is what it’s been used for quite a bit,” Galbreath said.
“But you realize, the power to deploy a free-flyer that would have another capability, which may hold an adversary’s asset in danger is an interesting prospect as well and one I hope that our adversaries are serious about and are nervous about.”
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Galbreath was also stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base (now Vandenberg Space Force Base) when the X-37B OTV-2 mission landed. He said the spacecraft is an awesome tool not just for its reusability, but additionally as a technique to engage the general public at large, since conveying missions with renderings isn’t as stimulating as seeing real hardware.
“I feel anything that can assist speed up the pondering and the thrill about space is invaluable not only for the Space Force, but for the space community at large,” he said.
Expanding capabilities
Along with the brand new orbital possibilities that officials say the X-37B will strive for on the OTV-7 mission, there will even be technology demonstrations. An in depth list of those flying onboard hasn’t been disclosed, but an Air Force press statement said the payloads on board “will expand america Space Force’s knowledge of the space environment by experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies. These tests are integral in ensuring protected, stable, and secure operations in space for all users of the domain.
“The X-37B continues to equip america with the knowledge to boost current and future space operations. X-37B Mission 7 demonstrates the united states’s commitment to innovation and defining the art-of-the-possible within the space domain,” said Gen. B. Probability Saltzman, the Chief of Space Operations, in an announcement.”
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One in all the disclosed experiments is NASA’s Seeds-2, which Maj. Tanya Downsworth, a spokesperson for the U.S. Space Force, described as “testing the unique conditions of interplanetary spaceflight by exposing the seeds and materials to the radiation environment of space.”
“These experiments are vital to understanding how humanity can perform long-duration manned missions in space and represent a core tenet of the X-37B’s mission to supply easier access to space for America’s scientists and engineers,” she added.
During OTV-6, which launched on May 17, 2020, and landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 12, 2022, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory performed an indication of capturing solar energy from space, using the Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module (PRAM) payload.
“Solar energy satellites could possibly be used internationally to support humanitarian missions in addition to support military operations,” said Chris DePuma, the PRAM program manager, a few 12 months into the test. “These are designed to gather solar energy in space where it is instantly available, after which function as an influence plant within the sky that’s able to delivering energy wherever it’s most needed.”
While there aren’t any current, public plans for the X-37B to have a task within the cislunar architecture, Galbreath said it could help inform a few of those designs down the road.
“As we proceed out to the cislunar environment, we’re going to wish to have a number of vehicles which have maneuver capability to get from the Lagrange points, for instance, to lunar orbit or to Earth orbit and potentially land, someway, on the Earth and the Moon,” Galbreath said. “So, I feel the maneuver aspect that’s demonstrated by the X-37 goes to pave the best way for a few of those future missions within the cislunar environment.”
Falcon Heavy and national security
The united states-52 mission can be necessary for the U.S. Space Systems Command (SSC) and its partnership with SpaceX.
Originally, the mission was set to launch throughout the summer, which might’ve seen the 2 side boosters on the Falcon Heavy, B1064 and B1065, fly following the U.S.-44 and USSF-67 missions successively. Nevertheless, a launch delay caused this mission to fly following launches for EchoStar and NASA.
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Walt Lauderdale, the Mission Director and lead for Falcon Systems and Operations at SSC, told Spaceflight Now that this was the second opportunity for the Space Force to learn from NASA’s prior evaluations of Falcon boosters. The primary time being the launch of a Global Positioning System satellite in January this 12 months.
“GPS 3 SV06 had first been flown for a crew mission and we took advantage of NASA’s work in evaluating that booster and we didn’t repeat what we didn’t must,” Lauderdale said. “It was the primary opportunity for us to really benchmark our processes for nominal work against what NASA did and it was a very good collaboration with NASA.”
He said the launch delay for USSF-52 also meant the side boosters have more previous flights than some other Falcon Heavy vehicle thus far.
“It really sets the stage for some flexibility reuse as an entire because as busy as our manifest goes to be, and there’s all the time the potential for the missions moving around, being confident in any of the boosters which can be in SpaceX’s inventory without us having to do a bunch of additional work is an amazing profit to us and the warfighter, when it comes to bringing that capability on-orbit,” Lauderdale said.
SpaceX has two Falcon 9 first stage boosters which have each flown 18 times as the corporate is certifying its rockets as much as 20 flights. Lauderdale said SSC doesn’t intend to develop into a flight leader with any of its missions, but said seeing the information from those boosters gives added confidence.
He also noted that there are quite a lot of components that have to be evaluated on a Falcon booster on the subject of future flights and it’s not only the variety of flights a booster has flown.
“It’s really about each, individual component: the engines, the plumbing, not only the structure, and what does that every one see? What number of flights? What’s its qualification? What’s its flight history?” Lauderdale explained. “And we’re making the most of all the data, along with SpaceX, to have faith for our missions.”
Lauderdale said for now, they’ll proceed using latest payload fairings for every of their missions, but also they are examining fairing reuse down the road.
“Much like booster reuse, you will have to take a look at what environments has it seen, not only going up, but when it comes back down after which, what has it seen from on the point of launch again,” Lauderdale said. “So, that’s certainly one of the subsequent steps we’re going to undergo along with reuse count is to see if, in partnering with SpaceX, we are able to get confidence for our missions that we’re not taking any additional risk.”