Cap Canaveral, Florida-December 28, 2023. SpaceX launches the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle during a classified military mission, aboard a Heavy Falcon. A spectral silhouette in the night for a mission with fuzzy contours. © Evan el-amin
In the black sky of Florida, a Falcon 9 rocket once again pierced at night on August 22, at 5:50 a.m. French time. On board: X-37B, a robotic shuttle 8.8 meters long, controlled not by a human, but by American military ambitions. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center, this space mini-avion has started its eighth mission, OTV-8, under the banner of the US Space Force. Officially, it is a question of testing new technologies: lasers, quantum sensors and other peak joyeuses. Unofficially ? It is classified.
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X-37B, a shuttle like no other
Built by Boeing, the X-37B looks like a compact, crew-free Space Shuttle. He takes off like a rocket and comes back to land like a plane. And since 2010, it has accumulated mysterious orbit missions, with durations that systematically beat the previous ones (up to 908 days for OTV-6). For OTV-8? Unknown duration. Exact destination? Unknown. Content of experiences? Half -guest.
This technology is useful for navigation in GPS -free environments, and will strengthen the resilience of American spacecraft in the face of current and emerging threats.
We know, however, that this time, the shuttle embarks the “The most efficient quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space”a technology capable of navigating without GPS, especially in the CIS-Lunar zone, between Earth and the Moon. The US Space Force says it itself: this prepares future missions in disputed, even hostile environments. But no details on the conditions, the targets, the partners, the duration, nor the precise destination. No access to experienced data either. And that’s not all.
Starlink, lasers et domination spatiale
The other major axis of theft: laser communications. Faster, more targeted, more secure, they could rely on constellations of commercial satellites, such as Starlink (more than 8,000 active satellites today). General Chance Saltzman, head of space operations, said it: OTV-8 aims to make American communication architecture “More resilient, reliable and adaptable”.
This will strengthen resilience, reliability, adaptability and transmission speeds of our satellite communication architecture.
Difficult, faced with this mission, to make the share between advanced innovation and the demonstration of force. What is certain is that the US Space Force does not send its mini-shuttle in orbit to make circles in the water. In a space that has become highly strategic, each flight of the X-37B says a lot … Precisely because it says nothing.
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