USA-277, also referred to as Orbital Test Vehicle 5 (OTV-5), is the third flight of the second
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
X-37B
The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United State ...
, an American unmanned
vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing spaceplane
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...
. It was launched to
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
aboard a
Falcon 9 rocket from
LC-39A on September 7, 2017. Its mission designation is part of the
USA series.
The spaceplane was operated by
Air Force Space Command, which considers the mission
classified and as such has not revealed the objectives. However, the Air Force did reveal that among the onboard payloads was an experimental
oscillating heat pipe. Additionally, it was revealed after OTV-5 landed that it had deployed three
cubesats
A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
in orbit.
Mission
OTV-5 is the third mission for the second X-37B,
and the fifth X-37B mission overall. It flew on
Falcon 9 booster B1040 from
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A, which touched down at
Landing Zone 1 following launch. It was fastest turnaround of a X-37B at 123 days.
OTV-5 was deployed into an
orbital inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object.
For a satellite orbiting the Earth ...
of 54.5°, higher than previous X-37B missions. The Air Force has not disclosed the reason for this.
After a record-setting 780 days in orbit, OTV-5 returned to land at the
Shuttle Landing Facility on October 27, 2019.
Satellite Deployments
Sometime during its orbital mission, OTV-5 deployed three
cubesats
A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
, given the designations USA 295, 296 and 297. The deployment was not announced until after OTV-5 had landed, which led to many accusing the US of breaking the
Registration Convention. The convention, which the US has ratified, requires newly deployed satellites to be promptly registered with the
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
See also
*
USA-212
*
USA-226
USA-226 is the first flight of the second Boeing X-37B, the Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (X-37B OTV-2), an American unmanned robotic vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing spaceplane. It was launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral on ...
References
{{Orbital launches in 2017
Spacecraft launched in 2017
Satellites of the United States Air Force
Spacecraft which reentered in 2019
USA satellites
Boeing X-37