SpaceX Launches U.S. Air Force X-37B
September 7th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
SpaceX successfully launched a classified Air Force drone from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as Hurricane Irma barrels toward the state.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched the Air Force space plane around 10 a.m. local time Thursday, despite warnings earlier in the morning the weather was only 50 percent favorable for the mission. Irma was forecast to be about 900 miles southeast of the launch site during Thursday’s take-off, with a separate storm system causing the earlier lift-off uncertainty, according to the nearby Patrick Air Force Base.
The launch was the fifth mission for the 11,000-pound autonomous spacecraft, but the first involving SpaceX.