The US military announced on Wednesday the next launch of its X-37B space drone, an orbital vehicle hitherto shrouded in secrecy and for which it will be the sixth mission. Capable of flying into orbit for several months, the unmanned mini-space shuttle X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), will take off on May 16 from the base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the US Air Force said. in a press release.
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The X-37B will deploy a small FalconSat-8 satellite that will conduct a record number of orbiting experiments for this spacecraft, US Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said during an online seminar.
The mission will thus make it possible to test the reactions of certain materials in space, she said without identifying the materials concerned. A second experiment will focus on the effects of ambient radiation in space on a series of seeds, she explained.
A third experiment developed by a research laboratory of the US Navy "will transform solar radiation into radioelectric energy and will study how to transfer this energy to the Earth", added Mrs. Barrett, who supervises the new "Space Force" American.
The X-37B, which resembles the American space shuttle, the last of which flew in July 2011, is nine meters long and has a wingspan of 4.5 meters.
The Pentagon, which released photos of the device on Wednesday, has so far been very discreet about its missions and capabilities.
With each new flight in space, the first of which took place in 2010, the spacecraft powered by solar panels remains longer and longer in Earth orbit.
It had completed its last flight in October 2019, after 780 days, or more than two years, in orbit.