Designed by Boeing, the X-37B is an unmanned spaceplane that is the smallest orbital plane flown to date, around a fourth of the size of the Space Shuttle. The spaceplane is launched into space via the Atlas V rocket, then can land on its own after its mission is complete. Yesterday, the X-37B launched, but the timing, and mission length and purpose was left undisclosed.
Secret government military actions aren’t exactly uncommon occurrences, and the Air Force’s official statement regarding the intention of the launch seems pretty standard, saying that it’s a simple experimental operation with the goal of testing and exploring reusable spacecraft technologies. However, some have speculated that the craft’s true mission is to spy on the Chinese space station, Tiangong-1. This theory arose during the plane’s previous mission, when space trackers noticed the craft’s flight path followed that of the Chinese space lab.
When the craft returned from its previous mission, program manager Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre said the goal of the mission was to see how long a resusable, unmanned craft of the X-37B’s nature could stay in orbit, and to see how far that length of time could be pushed. However, people who have been tracking the plane’s previous missions have made some very specific observations about its flight path as related to Tiangong-1. Earlier this year, Spaceflight magazine noted that the X-37B and Tiangong-1 “migrate toward or against each other, converging or diverging, roughly every 170 orbits,” with a period differential of around 19 seconds, showing how the plane’s mission may not only be to test its own orbital period.
