SpaceX to launch military’s secretive X-37B robot spaceplane

After weeks of false starts and delays, SpaceX teams prepared again on Thursday to launch the military’s secretive X-37B robot spaceplane on its seventh mission, the first atop a rocket capable of delivering it to a higher orbit than ever before. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is due for a nighttime blast-off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, on Florida’s Atlantic coast, during a 10-minute launch window starting at 8:07 p.m. EST (0107 GMT Friday).

A series of three launch countdowns were aborted earlier this month due to poor weather and unspecified technical issues, leading ground crews to roll the spacecraft back to its hangar before proceeding with the latest launch attempt.

The latest weather forecast for Thursday’s flight called for an 80% chance of favorable launch conditions.

The Boeing-built vehicle, roughly the size of a small bus and resembling a miniature space shuttle, is intended to deploy various payloads and conduct technology experiments on long-duration orbital flights. At the end of its mission, the craft descends back through the atmosphere to land on a runway much like an airplane.