Details About X-37B Payload Adapter Revealed After Record-Setting Mission
The sixth X-37B mission saw the uncrewed spaceplane fitted with a new service module to boost its payload capability.
BY
THOMAS NEWDICK
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PUBLISHED NOV 14, 2022 12:48 PM
For the first time, we’ve got to see the U.S. Space Force’s top-secret X-37B reusable spaceplane together with its service module, a bolt-on payload package that boosts the number of missions that this shadowy uncrewed orbital platform can undertake. The photo disclosure came soon after X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6, or OTV-6 — signaling its sixth mission — returned to Earth after a record 908 days (or roughly two and a half years) spent in orbit.
X-37B OTV-6 touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Saturday, at 5:22 AM local time, accompanied by sonic booms heard around Florida.
In line with the X-37B test missions, not a huge amount has been released regarding the nature of the experiments that were carried out while in orbit. There has long been widespread speculation that the two X-37Bs might also be used for gathering intelligence or other operational military missions of some kind.
We do know that its work on OTV-6 included examining the effects of cosmic radiation and other “space effects” on plant seeds and various material samples, as well as deploying a Naval Research Laboratory payload that’s capable of capturing solar power and beaming that energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/details-about-x-37b-payload-adapter-revealed-after-record-setting-mission
