美国空天军的X-37B无人空天飞机在太空中飞行434天后，于3月7日返回地球，降落在加利福尼亚州的范登堡空天军基地。这是X-37B的第七次任务，该飞机在地球上方150到500英里的轨道上运行，探索可重复使用的航天器技术并进行长期空间实验。最近的任务于2023年12月发射，并完成了一项新壮举：执行了一系列首次进行的名为“气动刹车”的机动，以使用最少的燃料安全地改变其轨道。此外，该飞机还测试了空间域感知技术实验，旨在提高美国空天军对空间环境的了解。

🚀 X-37B空天飞机成功完成第七次任务，在轨434天后安全返回地球，展示了美国在可重复使用航天器技术方面的领先地位。

🛰️ 本次任务中，X-37B执行了创新的“气动刹车”技术，通过利用地球大气层的阻力来改变轨道，从而最大限度地节省燃料，这对于未来的空间任务具有重要意义。

📡 X-37B还进行了空间域感知技术实验，旨在提升美国空天军对空间环境的认知，这对于在日益拥挤和竞争激烈的太空环境中进行空间行动至关重要。

The secretive exploits of the X-37B spaceplane continue.

After spending 434 days in space, the crewless Space Force craft returned to Earth on March 7, landing at California's Vandenberg Space Force Base in the middle of the night. The agency snapped pictures of its return, including the image of a hazmat suit-clad crew attending to the outer space craft.

"The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7), the U.S. Space Force’s dynamic unmanned spaceplane, successfully deorbited and landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on Mar. 7, 2025 at 02:22 a.m. EST," the U.S. Space Force posted on X.

This was the seventh mission of the X-37B, which orbits 150 to 500 miles above Earth to explore reusable space vehicle technologies and conduct long-term space experiments. The plane was originally built by Boeing for NASA, but the project transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, in 2004. At nearly 30 feet long, it's one-fourth the size of NASA's retired Space Shuttle.

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The spaceplane's most recent national security-related mission launched in December 2023, and it accomplished a new feat. The Space Force recently revealed on X that the spaceplane "executed a series of first-of-kind maneuvers, called aerobraking, to safely change its orbit using minimal fuel." "Aerobraking" involves using close passes by Earth's atmosphere to produce drag, ultimately allowing it to switch orbits without burning too much of its finite fuel.

When not aerobraking, it appears the spaceplane kept busy with reconnaissance-related activity.

"While in orbit, Mission 7 tested space domain awareness technology experiments that aim to improve the United States Space Force’s knowledge of the space environment," the Space Force said in a statement. "These technologies are critical to the U.S. Space Force’s ability to conduct space operations in an increasingly congested and contested environment of space, to the benefit of all users of the domain."

Spaceplanes, too, must contend with the amassing spacecraft and space junk in Earth's orbit.