A Secretive US Space Plane Will Soon Test Quantum Navigation Technology

X -37b, the The US Space Force’s confidential space aircraft, will take flights again soon.

Monday, Space Force Declaration The next month, the small, space shuttle -acre car will fly on the eighth mission of the program. This vehicle will not be introduced in a Falcon 9 rocket before August 25 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Both built by Boeing have two active X -377b in the Space Force fleet. The first one launched for the first time on April 23, and since then, two involuntary spacecraft inherited long flights. The first one created the longest and latest flight from 2020 to 2022 in the interval of 908 days. The second was further flown recently, 434 days later in the orbit, on March 7, Vandenberg landed at the Space Force Base.

Probably the first of these two vehicles, both are about 29 feet (9 meters) long and about one-fourth of the NASA space shuttle orbier will be launched next month.

Some details about the upcoming aircraft

Over the past one and a half decades, space forces remained largely silent about the purpose of this space aircraft, providing only limited information about flying classified pedals and the purpose of each aircraft.

However, for this flight, the OTV -8, the military has provided a little more details about its objectives. The vehicle will fly with a service module that will extend its ability for the exam, allowing the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Space Plane to host the space plane for the innovative unit.

Mission goals include “High-Bandwidth Inter-Satellite Laser Communications Technologies” test.

“OTV -8 laser communications demonstrations will identify an important step in earning commercial space networks of the US Space Force, as part of the unnecessary and unnecessary space architecture,” General Chance Saltzmann says the US Space Force Operations Operations Operations Operations said. “In doing so, it will strengthen our satellite communication architecture’s elasticity, reliability, adaptability and speed of transportation of data.”

Navigate in a world without GPS

The space aircraft will also advance the development of a new navigation technology based on electronic magnetic wave intervention. The Space Force News release has identified it as “the highest-tested highest-performing quantum internal sensor in space”.

Boeing Had previously tested A quantum internal measurement unit, which detects rotation and acceleration using nuclear interferometry on conventional aircraft. Now, an advanced version of technology is being taken into space to display its effectiveness. The goal of in-space test is to display specific locations, on and time in the environment where GPS services are not available.

“Below Line: This technology will be helpful for navigation in the competitive environment where GPS can be degraded or denied,” Saltzman Says in a social media post Monday, describe the flight.

Quantum International Sensors can also be used near the moon, where there is no comparative GPS capacity, or for further exploration of the solar system.

Significantly, the smaller X -37B has returned to launch in a medium -lift rocket with this new mission. Its time Most recent aircraft that ended in MarchThe space plane was launched in a Falcon heavy rocket for the first time. It allows the X -377B to fly outside the lower world orbit and reach an elliptical high earth orbit.

This story was originally attended ArserThe