The X-37B, the US Space Force’s secretive space plane, will soon take flight again.
On Monday, the Space Force announced that it will fly the small, Space Shuttle–shaped vehicle on the program’s eighth mission next month. The launch of the vehicle, on a Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled to occur no earlier than August 21 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
There are two active X-37Bs in the Space Force fleet, both built by Boeing. The first made its debut flight in April 2010. Since then, the two uncrewed spacecraft have made a succession of longer flights. The first made its longest and latest flight from 2020