Washington (AFP)
A U.S. Army space drone, X-37B, was successfully launched from the Cape Canaveral, Florida base on Sunday for a multi-month mission it will dedicate to a range of scientific experiments.
"Congratulations to the sixth mission of the X-37B shuttle," Defense Minister Mark Esper tweeted shortly after the launch.
The Atlas V rocket took off at 9:14 a.m. (1:14 p.m. GMT), carrying the unmanned mini-shuttle, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV).
It will deploy a small FalconSat-8 satellite that will conduct the experiments in orbit, said ten days ago the secretary of the US Air Force Barbara Barrett, lifting the veil on a drone which has remained secret until now.
The mission should allow to test the reactions of certain materials in space, but also to assess the effects of ambient radiation in space on a series of seeds, she explained.
A third experiment "will transform solar radiation into radioelectric energy and will study how to transfer this energy to Earth", added Mrs. Barrett, who supervises the new American "Space Force".
The X-37B, which resembles the American space shuttle, the last of which flew in July 2011, is nine meters long and has a wingspan of 4.5 meters.
The Pentagon, which has released photos of the aircraft, has so far been very discreet about its missions and capabilities.
With each new flight in space, the first of which took place in 2010, the spacecraft powered by solar panels remains for longer and longer in Earth orbit.
It had completed its last flight in October 2019, after 780 days, or more than two years, in orbit.
© 2020 AFP