SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket to Launch X-37B Spaceplane from Kennedy Space Center on December 10
By Space Coast Daily // December 8, 2023
coverage of the launch can be seen on Space Coast Daily TV
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch the USSF 52 mission for the U.S. Space Force on Sunday,December 10, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The launch is targeted for 8:14 p.m. ET.
The Falcon Heavy will launch the experimental X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle on this mission. This is the seventh flight of this spacecraft on a mission also known as OTV-7.
This will be the first launch of an X-37B using a Falcon Heavy rocket.
The spaceplane is an orbital test platform for different test and experimentation missions, some of which are classified. Since its first launch in 2010, X-37B has spent 3,774 days in space through six missions. This seventh mission, known as OTV-7 and designated USSF-52, will fly unclassified and classified experiments.
A NASA experiment called Seeds-2 will expose plant seeds to radiation during a long-duration spaceflight. A previous version of the experiment flew on X-37B’s last mission for more than 900 days.
Coverage of the launch can be seen on Space Coast Daily TV.
