The representative of the U.S. air force Heather Wilson in his speech in the us Senate announced that the company SpaceX will deliver experimental drone X-37B into orbit using the Falcon 9 rocket. The launch, she said, will take place in August 2017.
Unmanned experimental spacecraft the X-37B was developed by Boeing engineers. There are two such apparatus, one of which recently returned to Earth after two years in orbit.
The purpose of the X-37B is unknown, but earlier the Pentagon had planned to spend with it, the number of tests associated with the study of properties of materials and how they change in space.
Earlier that SpaceX is collaborating with the U.S. air force in the framework of the X-37B, was not reported, but in 2016, the company is Elon musk signed a contract with the U.S. air force, which pledged to launch two satellites in 2018. Last month the company started the execution of another contract concluded with the National Agency and the military space intelligence of the USA, and delivered into orbit a classified satellite office.
SpaceX will orbit a top secret drone to the US air force
Vyacheslav Larionov