Secret spaceplane heading back up to test new tech

The U.S. Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission Seven successfully landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, March 7, 2025. U.S. Space Force

A U.S. spaceplane will head to the heavens next month to test a quantum sensor that could help navigation in orbit without GPS, and to demonstrate new methods of space-based communications, the Space Force said in a release today.  

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle has been used by the U.S. military for over a decade to experiment with new technologies in space, but details around the program’s missions have largely been kept secret. 

The Space Force has been releasing more information about the X-37 in recent years, and announced that the upcoming launch—the spacecraft’s eighth known mission—would test the “world's highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever used in space.” The Pentagon has been eyeing quantum sensing ...