Secret Mission Completed: US military aircraft returned from space in 434 days (photo)

To spread: all the missions of the US X-37B space aircraft are shrouded in the US, but some details are still known. After 434 days spent in a very high orbit, a secret military aircraft of the US space forces returned from space. It happened on March 7 and the aircraft successfully landed on the basis of Vandenberg in California. It was not the easiest flight of the X-37B aircraft into space, but as part of the next mission, he performed a very important maneuver, Space writes. In focus.

Technology has appeared its Telegram channel. Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! The X-37B space aircraft has been built by Boeing and since 2010 this unmanned aerial vehicle has already made 7 successful flights in orbit. Its length is almost 9 meters, and the wingspan is 4. 5 meters. The X-37B aircraft was completed in space in November 2022. His sixth mission in orbit lasted a record 908 days.

The first X-37B flight in 2010 was the shortest-it lasted 224 days. We remind that in February, the US military first showed what the X-37B plane has in space, as focus has already written. The seventh mission of a mysterious military aircraft in orbit lasted 434 days, and therefore did not become a record, although it has a significant achievement in its stock.

The cosmic forces do not reveal all the details of the ending mission, and it is not surprising, because the same applies to all past flights X-37b in orbit. It is known that his board testing was carried out on the board, as well as scientific technology for NASA, but which remains a secret. The seventh X-37B mission began in December 2023, when it was launched by Falcon Heavy rocket, as focus wrote. The secret aircraft can only get into space in space, but it lands like ordinary planes.

By the way, for the first time, this unmanned military aircraft of the US space forces was brought to a highly elliptical orbit of more than 30,000 km from Earth. According to the US Space Forces, experiments were conducted by the X-37B aircraft aimed at improving the knowledge about the space environment. One of the main achievements of the seventh mission was the successful implementation of the X-37B aircraft with a new aerodynamic braking maneuver.

This maneuver demonstrated the possibility of a secret aircraft to change its orbit without high fuel costs with the help of resistance caused by friction with the atmosphere of the Earth. Mission executives said the aircraft proved the ability to perform tasks in different orbital modes. It was the aerodynamic braking maneuver that became the initial stage before the X-37B aircraft returns to the ground.

It moved from a highly elliptical orbit to a low Earth orbit, and then successfully landed in California. As always, the fact that the next X-37B mission was over, it became known later, after the plane has already landed. The duration of such missions all these years has never become the property of the public in advance. It is also unknown when the eighth flight X-37b will take place. This will be known just before the new launch of a secret aircraft into space.