X-37B Returns Safely After Breaking Record in Space for 908 Days

The X-37B aircraft broke a new flight record. (photo: dock. US Air Force)

JAKARTA - The record-breaking sixth mission of the US military's X-37B spacecraft finally ended and landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center last week.

X-37B is known to have orbited Earth for 908 days carrying the various experimental service modules on board, after only 780 days, and now its total flight is over 1.3 billion miles (2,092 billion km) and 3,774 days in space.

Boeing's plane was carrying out a mission that was a partnership between the US Department of Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and the US Space Force. It is based on NASA's X-37 program which began in 1999 before being handed over to DARPA in 2004.

The US Space Force is estimated to have two X-37B vehicles both manufactured by Boeing. To date, the two have flown six orbital missions, each known as an Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV).

“With the addition of a service module, this is the most we have ever brought into orbit on the X-37B, and we are proud to be proving this new and flexible capability to governments and industry partners", said the senior vice president at Boeing Space and Launch, Jim Chilton in a statement.

The service module is mounted on the rear of the vehicle which brings more experimentation. This includes the Naval Research Laboratory's Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna module, which harnesses sunlight beyond Earth's atmosphere and aims to transmit power to the ground in the form of radiofrequency microwave energy.

Additionally, the X-37B also carries FalconSat-8, a satellite designed by cadets at the US Air Force Academy that carries five experimental payloads of its own. The X-37B deployed the FalconSat-8 in October 2021, and the satellite remains in orbit to date.

Launching ZDNet, Tuesday, November 15, NASA experiments also took part in the X-37B flight, testing how space radiation affects plant seeds, and measuring how various materials respond to the space environment on a mission dubbed Material Exposure and Technological Innovation in Space (METIS-2).

NASA scientists will assess the material after they have spent more than 900 days in orbit and compare the observed effects with ground simulations.