Space Force is now an officially official Space Force

Source: New York Post

The newly-established Space Force blasted a secretive space plane into orbit from Florida Sunday for a mystery military mission.

The launch out of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station marked the sixth flight for the solar-powered X-37B craft — which is flown by remote control without a crew.

Riding atop an Atlas V rocket, the craft left from Space Launch Complex 41 at 9:14 a.m., following a one-day delay due to bad weather.

Officials won’t say why or how long it will remain in orbit, but the last mission lasted a record-breaking two years in space.

Jim Chilton, who is senior vice president for X-37B developer Boeing, noted that each mission has been progressively longer for the craft.

It is one of two of the Air Force’s winged space planes, which together have logged a combined 2,865 days in orbit as of Sunday.

“If you add up all the missions, just under eight years in orbit and 1 billion miles, so a lot of traveling by this machine,”

Jim Chilton
Senior VP – Boeing

The craft launched with an extra compartment for experiments, including several for NASA and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, making it the largest load for science yet for a mission.

Sunday’s launch was dedicated to health care workers and others on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

United Launch Alliance, which provided the Atlas V rocket, said it followed health advice for the launch with flight controllers wearing masks and spread out.

Space Force Launches X-37B Into Orbit

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