Quantum inertial sensors are scientifically intriguing and have direct defense applications, with potential to greatly improve sensitivity and precision for observing platform motion and yield strategic gains across the Department of Defense. The Pentagon's twin X-37B spaceplanes have accumulated over 4,200 days in orbit, largely operating in secrecy. Mission 7 ended with a runway landing at Vandenberg after more than 14 months and an elliptical excursion reaching roughly 25,000 miles that required a Falcon Heavy boost. Controllers demonstrated aerobraking to lower the orbit for reentry. Mission 8 returns the vehicle to low-Earth orbit to host quantum navigation and laser communications experiments, including optical inter-satellite links with proliferated commercial LEO networks likely including Starlink or Starshield.
The Pentagon's twin X-37Bs have logged more than 4,200 days in orbit, equivalent to about 11-and-a-half years. The spaceplanes have flown in secrecy for nearly all of that time. The most recent flight, Mission 7, ended in March with a runway landing at Vandenberg after a mission of more than 14 months that carried the spaceplane higher than ever before, all the way to an altitude approaching 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers).
Now, on Mission 8, the spaceplane heads back to low-Earth orbit hosting quantum navigation and laser communications experiments. Few people, if any, envisioned these kinds of missions flying on the X-37B when it first soared to space 15 years ago. At that time, quantum sensing was confined to the lab, and the first laser communication demonstrations in space were barely underway. SpaceX hadn't revealed its plans for the Falcon Heavy rocket, which the X-37B needed to get to its higher orbit on the last mission.
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