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A highly classified US Space Force aircraft called the X-37B will soon begin performing an aerodynamic braking maneuver to lower its orbit.
Little is known about the X-37B space plane, as well as about its missions in orbit. But the Boeing company, the creator of the secret project, released a video showing exactly how a US Space Force aircraft will perform a unique maneuver to lower the orbit for the first time, writes Space.
One of the US's most classified aircraft, the X-37B, currently orbiting Earth on its seventh mission, will soon begin performing an aerodynamic braking maneuver. It became known at the end of October that the X-37B would perform such a maneuver in space for the first time, but neither the Boeing company, the creator of the space plane, nor the US Space Force, which uses it for its own purposes, gave details about when exactly the maneuver will take place. provided It is assumed that the aerodynamic braking maneuver that the X-37B will perform in the near future.
The mysterious space plane first went into space in 2010 and with each new mission the duration of its flight increased. At the end of December 2023, the plane was launched into an unknown orbit by the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. In this way, the seventh secret mission of the X-37B began, in the framework of which, according to the message of the US Space Force, testing of various space technologies is carried out. It is not known exactly which ones. Although it was previously reported that the US military uses this aircraft to test the effects of cosmic radiation. Also, experts in the space industry previously assumed that the military is testing new technologies in orbit that will help track the movements of any devices in low Earth orbit and monitor their actions in space.
Now Boeing has apparently decided to make the X-37B a little less mysterious and has released a video showing exactly how the aerodynamic braking of the US space plane will take place. It became known that such a maneuver is necessary in order to lower the orbit in which the X-37B revolves around the Earth and get rid of unnecessary equipment before returning home. In particular, the aircraft must safely dispose of the service module in a way that does not create new space debris.
When ordinary satellites in Earth orbit need to change the trajectory of their movement, that is, to lower their orbit, the devices perform one or more starts of their engines. To perform such a maneuver, fuel is required, which means that when it runs out, the satellite either needs to be refueled or its operation is terminated.
The video shows an aircraft similar to the X-37B changing its orientation in space during aerodynamic braking so that its nose is raised away from Earth and the lower part of the aircraft points forward in the direction of orbital motion. It can be seen that the lower part of the plane glows orange due to the heat that is released during the friction between the plane and the Earth's atmosphere. It is friction that slows the plane down.
