Washington [US], December 29: After weeks of false starts and delays, SpaceX teams prepared again to launch the military's secretive X-37B robot spaceplane on its seventh mission, the first atop a rocket capable of delivering it to a higher orbit than ever before.
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is due for a nighttime blast-off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, on Florida's Atlantic coast, during a 10-minute launch window starting at 8:07 p.m. EST (0107 GMT Friday).
A series of three launch countdowns were aborted earlier this month due to poor weather and unspecified technical issues, leading ground crews to roll the spacecraft back to its hangar before proceeding with the latest launch attempt.
It comes two weeks after China's own reusable robot spaceplane, known as the Shenlong, or "Divine Dragon," was launched on its third mission to orbit since 2020, adding a new twist to the growing U.S.-Sino rivalry in space.
The latest weather forecast for Thursday's flight called for an 80% chance of favorable launch conditions.
The Defense Department has disclosed few details about the X-37B mission, which is conducted by the U.S. Space Force under the military's National Security Space Launch program.
The Boeing-built vehicle, roughly the size of a small bus and resembling a miniature space shuttle, is intended to deploy various payloads and conduct technology experiments on long-duration orbital flights. At the end of its mission, the craft descends back through the atmosphere to land on a runway much like an airplane.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation