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The US military's secretive X-37B robot spaceplane lifted off on its seventh mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, December 28, 2023.
It's the vehicle's first launch atop a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket which is capable of lifting it far higher than ever before.
The X-37B, 9 metres long and built by Boeing, can orbit between 240 kilometres and 800 kilometres in space.
It has an autonomous landing system that can take off vertically and land horizontally.
The launch came just two weeks after China's robot spaceplane, the Shenlongafter or 'Divine Dragon'.
The Pentagon has disclosed few details about the X-37B's secretive space mission. One report says the X-37B also is carrying on board NASA's experiment to study how plant seeds are affected by the harsh environment of radiation in space.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com