SpaceX launches secret military spacecraft
Mission 8 will contribute to improving the resilience, efficiency and security of U.S. space based communications architectures.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour carrying the Crew-11 mission lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 1, 2025. NASA and SpaceX launched a four-member crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for the latest research expedition to the orbiting laboratory.
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted into space on Thursday night carrying the US military’s secretive X-37B drone.
The rocket successfully launched at 11:50 p.m., according to SpaceX’s livestream of the event.
The Falcon 9 lit up the night sky over NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it was launched from.
The US Space Force has said the drone’s mission will include “a wide range of test and experimentation objectives.”
“These operational demonstrations and experiments comprise next-generation technologies including laser communications and the highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space,” the service said in a statement last month.
“Mission 8 will contribute to improving the resilience, efficiency and security of U.S. space based communications architectures,” it added.
About the size of a small bus, the X-37B US space drone looks like a mini version of the manned space shuttles retired in 2011.
On previous missions, the X-37B has carried out tests for US space agency NASA.