Space X’s Falcon 9 set for first X-37 B launch

Elon Musk's, Space Exploration Technologies Corp is set for the 13th Falcon 9 launch of the year today, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. According to commentators, there is some amount of uncertainty about the mission going off without a hitch given the weather conditions ahead of Hurricane Irma.

A day after Irma barreled though Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, the storm will be about 900 miles southeast of the launch site during today's take-off, according to the nearby Patrick Air Force Base. The base said on its website that thick clouds expected from a separate storm remained a concern and estimated a 40 per cent to 60 per cent chance of launch today.

According to commentators, in the event the launch does happen despite weather issues, SpaceX will, for the first time carry a US Air Force space drone that has conducted highly classified missions in orbit for more than year at a time. This would be the fifth mission for the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, an autonomous spacecraft about 20 per cent of the size of the retired Space Shuttle.

The US Air Force's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is an unmanned reusable spaceplane that can carry out operations and experiments in low earth orbit before returning to earth.

The Air Force operates a pair of X-37B spacecraft that are used alternately for its missions. On this basis, OTV-5 will be the third trip into space for the first X-37B spacecraft.

The spacecraft was developed by Boeing in partnership with the Air Force and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and is the successor to NASA's X-37A vehicle.

The X-37A conducted a series of glide tests in 2006 but was never launched in space. It was designed to be deployed from the Space Shuttle to carry out independent satellite servicing or scientific missions, capable of staying in orbit beyond the end of the Shuttle's mission. NASA kicked-off the X-37 program in 1999, however transferred it to DARPA in 2004.