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A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off Aug. 21 from Kennedy Space Center carrying USSF-36, the eighth mission of the X-37B orbital test vehicle.
The U.S. Space Force and SpaceX launched the X-37B orbital test vehicle for its eighth mission on Aug. 21, carrying operational demonstrations for laser link communications and quantum-based navigation to orbit.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched at 11:50 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, carrying the Boeing-built spaceplane under the USSF-36 mission.
The uncrewed spaceplane successfully reached its intended orbit to begin the mission, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman confirmed Aug. 22 on X, formerly Twitter.
The X-37B "continues to prove itself as a premier testing platform aiding in experiments to better understand our future in space," Space Launch Delta 45 Commander Col. Brian Chatman said in an Aug. 22 statement. "These experiments, X-37B itself and Space Launch Delta 45's ability to perform fast, flexible launches all play crucial roles in bolstering our resilience and enhancing our ability to swiftly adapt to the challenges in space of today and tomorrow."
The X-37B is returning to orbit about 5.5 months after its seventh mission, known as Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7), concluded on March 7.
During this latest mission, OTV-8, the Space Force plans to test laser-enabled space-based communications, as well as a quantum inertial sensor built by Vector Atomic under a Defense Innovation Unit contract. The Space Force has described it as “the world’s highest-performing quantum inertial sensor ever used in space.”
The mission also features a Boeing integrated service module that increases payload capacity for on-orbit experiments. The X-37B previously flew with the service module on OTV-6 and OTV-7.
The Space Force maintains two Boeing-built uncrewed, reusable X-37B spacecraft under a program managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO). The platform was designed as a variant of NASA’s X-37A, and is boosted into space via a launch vehicle before returning to Earth horizontally on a runway. Its first mission launched in 2010; since then, the two spaceplanes have collectively spent more than 4,200 days in space. Boeing teams primarily based in Seal Beach, California, and Kennedy Space Center design, build, integrate and operate the X-37B.
Michelle Parker, vice president of Boeing Space Missions Systems, lauded the team in place to make the X-37B mission a success. "Launch is the starting line for this mission, but the work that follows—the quiet, methodical work on orbit, analysis and eventual return—is where progress is earned," she said in an Aug. 22 statement.
A Department of the Air Force spokesperson declined to provide information about the vehicle performing the eighth mission, nor about the X-37B’s program cost or budget information.
“The X-37B continues to forge forward with the technologies of tomorrow,” Lt. Col. Blaine Stewart, X-37B program director at the RCO, said in an Aug. 21 statement.
This launch marked the sixth flight for SpaceX’s B1092 first stage, the company said. The booster landed on SpaceX’s Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral SFS, just under 9 min. after liftoff.
SpaceX has launched two prior X-37B missions for the Space Force. OTV-5 launched Sept. 17, 2017, on a Falcon 9, while OTV-7 launched Dec. 29, 2023, on a Falcon Heavy rocket—the program’s first and, so far, sole launch on the super heavy-lift launch vehicle. For both missions, the booster lifted off from the Cape and returned to the landing zone.
United Launch Alliance boosted the X-37B's other five previous missions—OTV-1 through -4 and OTV-6—via its Atlas V 501 launch vehicle. The Air Force spokesperson would not comment on whether ULA's new Vulcan Centaur rocket—now operating national security space missions—would launch future X-37B vehicles.
It is unclear how long the X-37B will continue its on-orbit operations. Prior mission durations have ranged from just over 224 days for its inaugural mission, to nearly 909 days for its longest mission to date, OTV-6. During the last mission, OTV-7, the vehicle spent more than 434 days in space while operating in a highly elliptical orbit for the first time, then performing a novel aerobraking maneuver to descend to low Earth orbit (LEO), dispose of its service module and continue operations in LEO before returning to Earth.
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