{"id":29413,"date":"2025-08-22T12:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=29413"},"modified":"2025-08-22T12:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:32:08","slug":"spacex-launches-secretive-us-military-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/spacex-launches-secretive-us-military-spacecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches secretive US military spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted into space on Thursday night carrying the US military&#8217;s secretive X-37B drone.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket successfully launched at 11:50 pm (0350 GMT on Friday), according to SpaceX&#8217;s livestream of the event.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9 lit up the night sky over NASA&#8217;s Kennedy Space Center, where it was launched from.<\/p>\n<p>The US Space Force has said the drone&#8217;s mission will include &#8220;a wide range of test and experimentation objectives.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These operational demonstrations and experiments comprise next-generation technologies including laser communications and the highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space,&#8221; the service said in a statement last month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mission 8 will contribute to improving the resilience, efficiency and security of U.S. space based communications architectures,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p>About the size of a small bus, the X-37B US space drone looks like a mini version of the manned space shuttles retired in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>On previous missions, the X-37B has carried out tests for US space agency NASA.\u00a0In operation since 2010, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle was designed for the Air Force by United Launch Alliance by Boeing.<\/p>\n<p>It is 30 feet (nine meters) long, has a 15-foot wingspan and is powered by solar panels.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted into space on Thursday night carrying the US military&#8217;s secretive X-37B drone. The rocket successfully launched at 11:50 pm (0350 GMT on Friday), according to SpaceX&#8217;s livestream of the event. The Falcon 9 lit up the night sky over NASA&#8217;s Kennedy Space Center, where it was launched from. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29415,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29413\/revisions\/29415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}