HONG KONG: United Launch Alliance will launch an Atlas V 501 rocket on Wednesday on a special mission for the U.S. Air Force. The payload contains the secretive X-37B, a type of “mini shuttle,” and several experiments which include a large solar powered sail.
The weather forecast has improved dramatically to a 60 percent chance for launch.
The X-37B is housed vertically inside this Atlas V. At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, it was rolled out from it’s vertical processing facility to Launch Pad 40, where it remain until the launch window opens at 10:45 a.m.
This is the fourth Air Force mission for this small reusable space plane, which looks similar to a space shuttle, but is a quarter of the size. However, it’s the first X-37B launch since the Air Force moved the entire classified test program from California to its new home inside an old refurbished Space Shuttle facility.
Space Florida and the Florida Department of Transportation spent $9 million incentivizing the Air Force to make the move to the Space Coast.
“It’s going to anchored here and continue to grow here, if the program succeeds,” said Dale Ketcham with Space Florida. “But, we have every reason to believe the Department of Defense is very eager to see this program succeed. We are not really sure why, we don’t care, we just want it to succeed here.”
This space plane can spend more than a year in space, and has done so in the past. We don’t know how long this mission will last but when it’s finished, it will land back in Cape Canaveral.
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