{"id":29230,"date":"2017-08-31T19:13:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T19:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/08\/31\/air-forces-space-plane-set-to-launch-again-sept-7\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:25:11","slug":"air-forces-space-plane-set-to-launch-again-sept-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2017\/08\/31\/air-forces-space-plane-set-to-launch-again-sept-7\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force announces date for X-37B launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON\u2014 The U.S. Air Force\u2019s secretive X-37B space plane will make its debut launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 on Sept. 7, the Air Force\u2019s top civilian said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf the weather is good,\u201d the Boeing-built X-37B will launch from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, announced U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who declined to comment on the nature of the mission the space plane will perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=bb36f527-cbd5-46da-bcad-ecf9ba1d7329\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Air Force to Launch X-37B<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=bb36f527-cbd5-46da-bcad-ecf9ba1d7329\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Air Force to Launch X-37B<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s one of our experimental platforms,\u201d she said during an exclusive interview with Defense News and Air Force Times on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The September launch will mark the start of the X-37B\u2019s fifth mission, during which it will be outfitted with the Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader, or ASETS-11, created by the Air Force Research Lab to \u201ctest experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipes in the long duration space environment,\u201d the service said earlier this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe many firsts on this mission make the upcoming OTV launch a milestone for the program,\u201d Randy Walden, the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement. The RCO runs the X-37B program \u201cIt is our goal to continue advancing the X-37B OTV [orbital test vehicle] so it can more fully support the growing space community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Space publications speculated that a launch date would be forthcoming due to increased activities in Cape Canaveral. Early Thursday morning, Spaceflight Now <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/2017\/08\/31\/falcon-9-x-37b-flight-preps\/\">reported <\/a>that SpaceX had rolled out a Falcon 9 rocket onto Kennedy Space Center\u2019s pad 39A for static fire tests later in the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2017\/06\/07\/x-37b-space-plane-to-get-lift-from-spacex\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3362970.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">X-37B space plane to get lift from SpaceX<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The X-37B is heading back to space later this year, and this time the space plane will launch for the first time ever by a SpaceX Falcon 9, the Air Force announced late Tuesday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The X-37B completed its fourth mission on May 7 and has spent 2,085 days in orbit over its entire lifespan. During the most recent 718-day period of operation, the plane conducted on-orbit experiments, the nature of which were not made public by the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The secretive space plane will make its debut launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 for its fifth mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":50682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,160,36,23],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-29230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QHIWYKEGF5G2BPBKVIZA3FRBIQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/space\/2017\/08\/31\/air-forces-space-plane-set-to-launch-again-sept-7\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US Air Force announces date for X-37B launch - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The secretive space plane will make its debut launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 for its fifth mission.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2017\/08\/31\/air-forces-space-plane-set-to-launch-again-sept-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Air Force announces date for X-37B launch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The secretive space plane will make its debut launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 for its fifth mission.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2017\/08\/31\/air-forces-space-plane-set-to-launch-again-sept-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-31T19:13:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T22:25:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": 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