The United States Space Force recently released a rare photograph taken by its top-secret X-37B space plane while in orbit around Earth. This image captures a distant view of our planet and was shared as part of a broader mission that began in December 2023. The mission involves conducting innovative maneuvers like aerobraking to alter the spacecraft's orbit using minimal fuel while exploring various technological and experimental goals, including new awareness technologies and radiation effects on materials.
An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in highly elliptical orbit in 2024.
The mission involved a number of vaguely-worded goals, including operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA.
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