This novel and efficient series of maneuvers demonstrates the Space Force's commitment to achieving groundbreaking innovation as it conducts national security missions in space.'

One of the US Space Force’s (sort of) secret space planes known as the X-37B is gearing up to shift its orbit in a big way. According to an official October 10 announcement from the USSF, the Boeing-built experimental aircraft has begun performing a series of maneuvers known as “aerobraking” that will see it change its altitude by conducting “a series of passes using the drag of Earth’s atmosphere.

The Space Force craft will attempt aerobraking for the first time After nearly a year in orbit, the US Space Force's secretive X-37B is prepped to perform some fancy new maneuvers to alter its orbit and dump its service module before carrying on with more mysterious work.