US Military Launches Secretive Spaceplane X-37B, Will Research on New Concepts

America's army is considered the most powerful in the world. It has state-of-the-art weapons and other systems. The US Army sent one of its planes into space on Thursday. This plane is being called X-37B and it has been launched through Falcon Heavy rocket of billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX.

According to CNN, the X-37B has been sent into space without a crew and the purpose of this mission is to conduct important research. However, it is not known in which direction the spaceplane has been sent. Before this it had taken 3,774 days to complete six missions. The previous mission record of this spaceplane was 908 days. Its missions have been kept secret. Its design is almost similar to the space shuttle of the American space agency NASA. It is being said that the X-37B missions are aimed at researching concepts such as transmission of solar energy from space for use on Earth and the effects of radiation on seeds used to grow food grains.

A few weeks ago, China sent its robotic spaceplane Shenlong into orbit on its third mission. The X-37B is made by Boeing and its size is approximately the size of a small bus. After completing its mission it comes back down through the atmosphere and lands on the runway like an airplane. Paul Graziani, CEO of COMSPOC, a firm involved in tracking objects in space, said that the use of a powerful rocket indicates that the X-37B has been sent some distance into space for the payload.

He said, “If the military does not want people to track the X-37B, it can be hidden from sunlight or some other means.” There is speculation that this spaceplane is moving towards geosynchronous orbit which is present at a distance of about 36,000 kilometers from the Earth. NASA's missions keep providing new information about space. Images are captured with the help of various telescopes ranging from James Webb Telescope to Hubble Telescope. The International Space Station, which is circling the Earth 400 kilometers above the Earth, is also giving information about space and Earth. This is very useful for researchers.