This is the eighth mission involving the X-37B program and marks the fourth flight of its first vehicle, which previously flew in missions 1, 3, and 6. As with earlier flights, details of the current mission remain classified, though it is known that a laser communication system and a quantum inertial sensor will be tested.
Missions with the unmanned X-37B are notably long, with the record held by the first vehicle, which stayed in space for 908 days during its sixth mission, OTV-6. The seventh mission, OTV-7, lasted 434 days, though it was initially planned to extend to about 1,000 days.
The pair of X-37B spaceplanes enables the United States to carry out crucial research on new technologies later applied in military systems. At the same time, the program’s non-scientific objectives remain undisclosed.
