The American military again sent their mysterious Cosmoplanes X-37b into space. The device started from the cosmodrome at Cape Canveral in Florida on August 21 on the Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX. After 8 minutes, the first step of the rocket successfully returned to the ground, and the upper continued the delivery of the X-37B to orbit.
The X-37B looks like a reduced version of the NASA shuttle and has no crew. There are only two such devices have two such devices, both were built by Boeing. Their main task is to test new technologies and equipment in orbit. Details usually keep secret.
The current flight was called OTV-8. The military reported that there are new laser communications and a unique quantum inertial sensor on board. The latter allows you to determine the position and speed of the spacecraft even without GPS.
Laser communication, in turn, allows you to transmit more data and protects channels from interference. Tests will be carried out using orbital satellite networks, including SPACEX Starlink probably.
X-37B flies since 2010.
