USA-299, also referred to as USSF-7 and Orbital Test Vehicle 6 (OTV-6), is the third flight of the first

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

X-37B, an American unmanned vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can flight, fly and gliding flight, glide as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbit ...

. It was launched to

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

aboard an

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

from SLC-41 on 17 May 2020. Its mission designation is part of the USA series. The spaceplane is operated by the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and

United States Space Force The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space force branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces, armed forces of the United States and one of the eight uniformed services of the Unite ...

, which considers the mission

classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...

and as such has not revealed the objectives. However an unclassified secondary satellite, FalconSat-8, was deployed from the X-37B soon after launch.

Mission

OTV-6 is the third mission for the first X-37B built, and the sixth X-37B mission overall. It flew on an

in the 501 configuration, and launched from

Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41 Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41), sometimes referred to as "Slick Forty-one," is one of two launch sites at the Integrate-Transfer-Launch Complex in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Originally built as Launch Complex 41 (LC-41), it and ...

. This flight is the first time the space plane has been equipped with a service module to carry additional pieces for experiments. OTV-6 was deployed into an orbit with an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

of approximately 44.60°. OTV-6 landed after a record-breaking 908 days at the

Shuttle Landing Facility The Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF), also known as Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) , is an airport located on Merritt Island, Florida, Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida, Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is a part of the Kennedy ...

on November 12, 2022.

FalconSat-8

A rideshare payload for the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

, FalconSat-8, was deployed from the X-37B a few days into the mission. The satellite provides a platform for the academy's Cadet Space Operations Squadron to test various technologies. Onboard experiments include: * MEP (Magnetic gradient Electrostatic Plasma thruster), a novel electromagnetic propulsion system * MMA ( Metamaterial antenna), a low power, high performance antenna * CANOE (CArbon NanOtubes Experiment) * ACES (Attitude Control and Energy Storage), a commercial reaction wheel modified into a

flywheel A flywheel is a mechanical device that uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy, a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, a ...

* SkyPad, off-the-shelf cameras and

GPUs A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

integrated into a low power package

References

{{Orbital launches in 2020 USA satellites United States Space Force Spacecraft launched in 2020 Boeing X-37 May 2020 in the United States Spacecraft which reentered in 2022

Mission

FalconSat-8

See also

References