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The U.S. government ’s secretive X-37B space planer has return to Earth after a 434 - day commission in orbit , according to astatementfrom the U.S. Space Force .
Although the detail of the inscrutable uncrewed spacecraft’smore - than - yearlong missionremain for the most part separate , the Space Force is touting the recent flight as the commencement of an " exciting young chapter " in the X-37B political platform .
The U.S. Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission Seven successfully landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 23 May 2025.
" Mission 7 break new land by showcasing the X-37B ’s ability to flexibly accomplish its run and experimentation objective lens across orbital authorities , " Chief of Space OperationsGen . Chance Saltzmansaid in the Space Force statement .
In particular , the Space Force noted the space woodworking plane ’s successful completion of severalaerobraking manoeuvre — a method of utilizing atmospheric drag to bring down the woodworking plane ’s orbit while expend minimum sum of fuel .
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Typically , satellites must use built - in pusher to interchange their altitude . By aerobraking , the space planer instead changes the angle of its nose comparative to its orbital direction , thus exposing more of its broad underbelly to the atmosphere . This , in turn , generates drag on the plane , step by step retard it down and depress its altitude over the track of multiple passes around the planet .
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The X-37B launched on Mission 7 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Dec. 29 , 2023 , riding aSpaceXFalcon Heavy rocket into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth . During the missionary post , the self-directed blank space plane also carried out various experimentation refer to blank space radiation and " space world knowingness technology , " which presumably refer to detecting various target in arena , according to the program line . Space Force interpreter did not exposit on what these experiments entailed . The aeroplane returned to Vandenberg in the dark of dark on March 7 , 2025 .
Built by Boeing , the X-37B distance woodworking plane began as aNASAproject before being handed over to the U.S. military in 2004 , according toThe Aviationist . The delegation ’s chief goal is to advance reusable space vehicle engineering science , with the craft set up vertically on a rocket , spending months or yr in area to carry on experiment , and then land again like a distinctive airplane . Its longest stint in space so far lasted 909 days , between May 2020 and November 2022 . Its shortest flight , in 2010 , last 224 days .
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