SpaceX delays launch of secret Space Force mission

Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced Sunday that a planned Space Force mission involving the U.S. military’s secretive X-37B spacecraft has been pushed back a day due to the weather.

The launch was initially scheduled to occur Sunday at 8:14 p.m. ET at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida but has been delayed to the same time Monday evening when weather conditions are expected to be more conducive to the launch. 

SpaceX said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it’s “Now targeting Monday, December 11 for Falcon Heavy’s launch of the USSF-52 mission, with favorable weather conditions forecasted to improve to 70% favorable for liftoff on Monday night.”

The Boeing X-37B is an unmanned, robotic spacecraft operated by the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office in collaboration with the Space Force based on an earlier variant of the spacecraft used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 

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Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, the X-37B is designed as a reusable spacecraft launched vertically into orbit by a launch vehicle and eventually re-enters Earth’s atmosphere as a spaceplane landing horizontally on a runway. 

The Air Force has said it’s the first vehicle since NASA’s shuttle orbiter with the ability to return experiments to Earth for analysis. 

While much of its operations and testing remains secret, the service said in a fact sheet that technologies tested by the X-37B include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high-temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, advanced propulsion systems, advanced materials and autonomous orbital flight.

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The X-37B is designed to remain in space for extended-duration missions lasting at least 270 days – though some of its missions have lasted much longer. The X-37B’s fifth mission reached 780 days in orbit, while its sixth mission ran from May 17, 2020, to Nov. 12, 2022, a total of 908 days in orbit. 

In 2019, former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said the X-37 was “fascinating” because it can turn to alter its orbit when it’s close to the Earth. She added that “means our adversaries don’t know… where it’s going to come up next.”

The upcoming X-37 mission would be the spacecraft’s seventh spaceflight since its debut in April 2010. It would be the first time an X-37 has been launched into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Its fifth mission was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket, while the last mission used an Atlas V rocket.