In a night-time spectacle, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy flawlessly delivered the United States Space Force’s (USSF) seventh X-37B spaceplane, known as Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-7), into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:07 p.m. EST on December 28. The launch, initially delayed by weather challenges, marked the X-37B’s first journey aboard SpaceX’s powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch was SpaceX’s 95th of the year, contributing to its ambitious 2023 manifest of 100 planned operational missions (excluding the pair of Starship flight tests).

SpaceX has now flown Falcon Heavy a total of nine times since its debut flight in 2018, five of these flights took place in 2023. Falcon Heavy is comprised of three Falcon boosters arranged side-by-side, powered by an impressive 27 Merlin 1D engines. Collectively, these engines are capable of generating a staggering 5.1 million pounds of thrust upon liftoff.

Notably, the Falcon Heavy’s boosters, with a history of being reused on five prior missions, achieved successful synchronized landings on SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station following booster separation. It marked SpaceX’s 257 and 258 landing of orbital-class rockets. To date, SpaceX has reused first-stage boosters in its fleet an impressive 230 times.

The side boosters that supported this mission previously launched: USSF-44, USSF-67, Hughes JUPTER 3, and NASA’s Psyche mission.

The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $130 million contract in June 2018 to deploy the USSF-52 mission but it faced delays over the years. Operated by the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and the USSF, Boeing-built X-37B spaceplane embarks on a mission with diverse test objectives aimed at advancing space capabilities. These include operating in new orbital regimes, experimenting with space domain awareness technologies, and investigating radiation effects on NASA materials.

The U.S. Space Force did not disclose many details about what is onboard the uncrewed spaceplane due to national security; representatives only mentioned that part of the payload is NASA research. The mission carries the NASA’s Seeds-2 experiment, which involves exposing plant seeds to space radiation and microgravity. Some of the seeds include: tomato, radish, peppers, onions, lettuce, garnet giant, wheat, cucumber, rice, mizuna, cauliflower, scarlet frill, swiss chard, pac choi, and brachypodium.

Reflecting on past achievements, the USSF highlighted the previous X-37B OTV’s impressive 3,774 days operating in space since its launch in April 2010. This included groundbreaking experiments such as harnessing solar energy for the Naval Research Laboratory and testing the effects of long-duration space exposure on organic materials for NASA. The X-37B also served as a launch platform for a spacecraft designed and operated by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

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All Featured Images Source: SpaceX and United States Space Force