The Pentagon’s X-37B space plane launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Thursday night for yet another secretive mission — two weeks late due to technical difficulties and powerful storms.
The US military’s mysterious X-37B unmanned space plane blasted into space Thursday night aboard SpaceX’s hulking Falcon Heavy rocket for yet another secretive mission involving “groundbreaking” experiments.
The spacecraft left from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for its seventh flight — two weeks after an earlier scheduled launch was delayed due to technical difficulties and powerful storms.
It is the first time the X-37B has been launched from a Falcon Heavy, which is significantly more powerful than the previous rockets that have propelled the reusable space plane, and capable of sending it a higher orbit than ever before.
The X-37B’s latest mission is expected to last several years, much like its previous two-and-a-half-year flight, which ended when it landed at Kennedy Space Center a year ago.
