Atlas V Rockets into Orbit Again Under US Air Force Secret Mission
The US Air Force carried out a secret military mission early on Sunday. The mission accomplished in a second attempt, after failing for the first time on Saturday due to strong winds. The Atlas V rocket launch took place as a classified mission with one of Air Force’s two X-37B space planes on-board.
The launch attempted on Saturday was the second by the US Space Force till date while 80th by the National Security Space Launch. Plans are underway to launch seven more such missions by the end of this year as per the Space and Missiles Systems Center.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s rocket launch marked the beginning of the 6th mission carried out by X-37B space plane. It is said to be comparatively more experimental mission than the previous ones owing to the new service module added to the aircraft’s aft.
The Atlas V also had X-37B space plane on-board during the launch, which made the mission all the more secretive. The X-37B is one of Air Force’s secret Boeing-made, unmanned and reusable spacecraft. It takes off vertically while lands horizontally. The Air Force owns two of such vehicles and has maintained tight lips on the capabilities of the vehicle, details about its time in space, what it does during the course of its path, besides the scientific experiments hosted with it.
The only details that have been released by the Forces so far is that the aircraft, which is better known as Orbital Text Vehicle will position a satellite into the orbit and perform the testing of power-beaming technology.
The threat of adversaries knowing more than they should before the mission even commenced, the US Air Force had to suspend the live broadcast of the mission midway. ULA chief executive officer Tory Bruno said, “It’s a classified mission, and what is classified about it as the details of the vehicle itself, the mission it will do on orbit and where it will do that.” He further elaborated that, that was the reason for them to stop the live broadcast, just to “not make it easy for adversaries to figure those things out by having that much data about the flight and deployment.”
Even though much details about the experimental nature of the missions haven’t been given out yet, but earlier this month, the US Air Force did through around a few hints. It disclosed about conducting an experiment on-board, which would serve the purpose of delivering solar power from the space to the ground using radio frequency microwave energy.
Besides using the launch for space experiments, the launch was dedicated to pay tribute to the victims of COVID-19. The Atlas V rocket was also stamped with the message: “In memory of COVID-19 victims and tribute to all first responders and front-line workers.”
