X-37B OTV-5 (USA 277)

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Description:

• This is the fifth OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle) mission. The OTV 5 (X-37B) is a robotic spaceplane developed by the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and carries secret test payloads.
• The spaceplane is made of light-weight composite structures instead of aluminum and shielded with improved leading-edge ceramic insulation panels on its wings and tougher silica tiles affixed to its belly that are designed to be more durable than first-generation tiles used on the space shuttle. It can weigh up to 11,000 pounds fueled for launch.
• Unlike the space shuttles that used cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen reactants to generate electricity through onboard fuel cells, limiting the mission lengths by the amount of consumables that could be carried, the OTV is powered by a deployable solar array.
• OTV 5 (USA 277) is US Air Force′s X-37B spaceplane, a reusable robotic mini-shuttle that could stay aloft for years with clandestine on-board experiments. Built by Boeing′s Phantom Works division and managed by the Air Force′s Rapid Capabilities Office, each spaceship has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters) and a length of more than 29 feet (8.9 meters). The ship′s wings fit snugly inside the 17-foot-diameter (5-meter) payload shrouds on the Falcon 9 and Atlas 5 rockets. The X-37B, also called the Orbital Test Vehicle, weighs about 11,000 pounds (5 metric tons) and has typically orbited Earth at altitudes between 200 and 250 miles (320 to 400 kilometers). No details about the X-37B′s altitude or orbital parameters were released for this mission, but safety notices published for pilots and mariners ahead of the launch suggested the rocket would place the miniature windowless space shuttle into an orbit tilted between roughly 40 and 65 degrees to the equator. The Air Force announced before the launch that the fifth X-37B flight, known as OTV-5, would go into a higher-inclination orbit than earlier X-37B flights. The four X-37B missions to date flew in orbits tilted between 38 and 43.5 degrees to the equator, but the this one will reach higher latitudes on each lap around Earth.

Mission details:

• The fifth flight of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle project (and probably the third flight of spacecraft number 1) began on Sep 7, 2017. This was the first X-37 launch on a Falcon 9; the B1040 core stage landed back at Cape Canaveral′s Landing Zone 1. The spacecraft was also given the code name USA 277.
• The USAF OTV-5 spaceplane mission launched in Sep 2017 has finally been located in orbit by hobbyists. On Apr 11, 2018 orbit was 355 x 356 km x 54.5 deg - a higher orbit inclination than earlier X-37B missions.
• Around 0500 UTC Apr 19, 2018 it lowered its orbit to 310 x 323 km x 54.5 deg.
• Residents of Florida′s ‘Space Coast′ in northern Brevard County were awakened with sonic booms before the crack of dawn on Oct 27, thanks to the unannounced arrival of the secretive U.S. Air Force X-37B spaceplane, which landed at the SLF runway at NASA′s Kennedy Space Center at 3:51 a.m. local (07:51 UT) after spending 780 days in space.
• The USAF announced that the mission was successful while "providing a ride for small satellites".
  No such satellites have been cataloged in the US satellite catalog, nor have they been identified in registration notification documents sent to the United Nations, in violation of UN Resolution 3235 (XXIX), Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
• Sometime between 2017 and 2019 the US DoD covertly deployed three small satellites from the orbiting X-37 spaceplane. Those satellites have finally been added to the US satellite catalog as USA 295-297 (SSN 45169-45171) although with no orbital data provided. A page on Space-Track.org noted that the three satellites are no longer in orbit; this adds weight that they were deployed close to the beginning of the OTV-5 mission in 2017. (JR775 - Feb 2020)

The Air Force′s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission 5 successfully landed at NASA′s KSC Shuttle Landing Facility Oct. 27, 2019. Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force