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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

X-37B spaceplane launched for sixth secretive mission

• https://newatlas.com by David Szondy

Built by Boeing, which also provides mission support, the X-37B has flown on five previous missions, with each progressively longer in duration. The last one, OTV-5, lasted 780 days before a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Though it is currently operated by the US Space Force, it remains a US Air Force asset.

According to Boeing, OTV-6 is the first time the X-37B has been equipped with a service module, allowing it to carry additional payloads. These include the US Air Force Academy's FalconASAT-8 small satellite, which will be deployed later this year to test electromagnetic propulsion, two NASA experiments to study the effects of radiation and other space effects on various materials and food crop seeds, and a Naval Research Laboratory investigation on how sunlight can be converted into microwaves as a means to beam power from orbit to the ground.


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