X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV)

Elisar Priel@ENNEPS
SpaceX Falcon 9 B1092-6 with the USSF X-37B spaceplane on board rolled out to Launch Complex 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center and went vertical a few hours later ahead of the USSF-36 (OTV-8) mission launch, scheduled for Thursday night.
@NASASpaceflight

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1958246896771760198
View: https://twitter.com/ENNEPS/status/1958246896771760198
 
The X-37B has been cataloged as USA-555, along with an additional payload called LIMASAT. LIMASAT likely was deployed from the payload bay or service module shortly after launch.

[tt]
2025-183A 65271 USA 555 US 2025-08-22 AFETR PAY++ NEA
2025-183B 65272 LIMASAT US 2025-08-22 AFETR PAY++ NEA
[/tt]

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DutchSpace
@DutchSpace
For those wondering about the additional satellite, called limasat, on X-37B OTV-8, my guess would be that it was on the service module, like Falconsat 8 seen here on the X-37B OTV-6 service module
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1959110468317876598
View: https://x.com/DutchSpace/status/1959110468317876598
 
publiusr said:
That gives me hope--I had always believed that Space Force might be a way to forward space technology beyond what stingy Congress ever allocated to NASA proper--a back door.
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wrong. X-37 is not the only way to forward space technology.
 
I never said it was.

Still, there is more actual money going to the industry now than before Space Force, when you only had the occasional Titan III or IV launch.

Mil-space funds might be what keeps NewSpace alive what with VC funding unreliable.
 
publiusr said:
Still, there is more actual money going to the industry now than before Space Force, when you only had the occasional Titan III or IV launch.
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This is not the 70's. The milspace had many launches per year before Space Force.
martinbayer said:
Elaborate, please, especially in an August Forum like this. Not saying you're wrong, just asking you to put all your cards on the table.
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Milspace used Pegasus, Taurus, and Minotaur, and secondaries on Falcon 9, Delta IV and Atlas V
 
yes. I think what we see is a bus, with its twin engines, and in front stands the re-entry kill vehicle with a Gemini type of geometry.
Your screenprint catches a depiction of the range and profile geometry with two systems in orbit (range would be the zone delimited by the white shape).
The bus and narrow bay in the image in my post would suggest the bus returning to the orbiting satellite to attach to another kill vehicle and be ready for a next target.
 
TomcatViP said:
yes. I think what we see is a bus, with its twin engines, and in front stands the re-entry kill vehicle with a Gemini type of geometry.
Your screenprint catches a depiction of the range and profile geometry with two systems in orbit (range would be the zone delimited by the white shape).
The bus and narrow bay in the image in my post would suggest the bus returning to the orbiting satellite to attach to another kill vehicle and be ready for a next target.
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Huh? Where is the "bus" going to get the energy to return to the orbiting satellite? And what is the point?
 
Thanks to Kevin and Felix for spotting and getting some obs on OTV-8. I
look forward to the Mike McCants TLE updates and an opportunity to observe
this object again. Thanks guys!
Daryl

On Thu, Mar 5, 2026 at 4:06 AM Kevin Fetter via Seesat-l <
seesat-l_at_lists.seesatmail.org> wrote:

> 99999 99 999A 1775 E 20260305001250694 17 25 0701180 684609 37 S
> 99999 99 999A 1775 E 20260305001313372 17 25 0902240 522609 37 S
>
> No wonder I had no luck seeing it, the last 2 months, they did play
> around with iit's orbit.
>
> Kevin
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PFJN said:
So are his legs o_O
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Don't worry, the mannequin is doing well and supported the ordeal of a section cut, surely savagely made, but excluding his noble self.

The file has been shared with the requester. And yes, without the nose missing on it and the butchered Ken.
 
TomcatViP said:
no. It can't only land with a higher payload mass. That's Very different.
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Wrong, its structure is only designed for 500lb launch and landing. Launch has higher loads than landing. The only way an X-37 "mission" carried more payload mass was in the service module.
 
PFJN said:
So are his legs o_O
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I wondered when they would crank up those highway safety films for the aerospace community. You can see it next to the Camero telephone-pole wrapper.

The atomic manhole cover is doing time in hard vacuum over that one….as for the pilot?

It’s okay.

They can rebuild him.

They have the technology.
 
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publiusr said:
I wondered when they would crank up those highway safety films for the aerospace community. You can see it next to the Camero telephone-pole wrapper.

The atomic manhole cover is doing time in hard vacuum over that one….as for the pilot?

It’s okay.

They can rebuild him.

They have the technology.
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Ahem, the X-37 is *uncrewed*.
 
NMaude said:
He was joking and making references to the Six Million Dollar Man.
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I would very much like to see him either confirm or correct/deny your speculative conjecture explicitly in writing in this here forum thread.
 
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