Falcon Heavy to launch from Cape Canaveral with a top-secret passenger
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy on Dec. 10 will launch from Kennedy Space Center for the fifth time this year — this time carrying the Boeing X-37B, according to a U.S. Space Force announcement.
This is the Falcon Heavy's first time as the launch vehicle for the X-37B, an unmanned aircraft designed to test technologies in space for the U.S. Air Force. Previous X-37B missions used rockets such as the McDonnell Douglas Delta II 7920 and the Lockheed Martin (later made by United Launch Alliance) Atlas 5.
A time for the Heavy launch has yet to be announced.
Meanwhile, the X-37B program, which consists of two planes, has been in effect since 2010, with the planes transferred in 2022 to the Space Force – the military branch carved off from the Air Force in late 2019 to deal with space combat.
