A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is poised to launch the X-37B space plane for the U.S. Space Force on Sunday evening (Dec. 10), and you possibly can likely watch the motion live.
Liftoff is scheduled to occur from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 GMT Dec. 11). If, as expected, SpaceX webcasts the liftoff, you possibly can watch it live here at Space.com.
It’s going to be the seventh launch to this point for the reusable X-37B but its first-ever ride on a Falcon Heavy, which could have consequences for its coming orbital mission.
Five of the six X-37B launches have employed United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, with one other using a SpaceX Falcon 9. Falcon Heavy, which utilizes three Falcon 9 boosters as its first stage, outclasses each of those other rockets in the case of getting mass to orbit. In line with a recent Space Force release, among the objectives of the approaching X-37B mission, often called OTV-7 (“Orbital Test Vehicle-7”), include “operating in latest orbital regimes,” which, given the launch vehicle, may indicate the next orbit than usual, farther from Earth.
Related: US Space Force postpones launch of secretive X-37B space plane to Dec. 10
The upgrade in launch vehicle may must do with mass. The X-37B includes a cargo bay to deal with equipment and experiments, and it might be carrying a secondary mission payload that requires Falcon Heavy’s added lift capability.
The uncertainty here isn’t surprising; most details of X-37B missions are classified. Nonetheless, USSF-52 does carry at lease one unclassified experiment: NASA’s “Seeds-2” project, which is able to test the results of radiation and long-duration spaceflight on plant seeds.
Each successive X-37B mission has been longer than its predecessors, with its most up-to-date orbital jaunt lasting 908 days. That mission, called OTV-6, landed in November 2022.
When Falcon Heavy launches on Sunday, it is going to be the rocket’s ninth mission to this point. It’s going to even be the fifth flight for the side boosters supporting this particular mission; the duo most recently launched NASA’s Psyche probe, in October of this yr.