X-37B OTV 7 has been found in HEO!

 

OTV 7 discovery image by Tomi Simola, Finland  ((c) Tomi Simola, used with permission)

On 29 December 2023 at 1:17 UTC, after several delays, SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy for the US Space Force with OTV 7, the seventh X-37B Spaceplane mission. Now its payload has been found!

OTV 7 was the subject of much speculation. The use of a Falcon Heavy, and the locations and time windows of related rocket stage splash-down and reentry zones, as well as statements by the US Space Force, indicated it might go into a different, higher altitude orbit than the previous six missions. On this blog, I speculated about a ~74-degree inclined Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO).

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Tomi Simola from Finland, OTV 7 has been found on-orbit this week. It is indeed in a HEO orbit, but inclined by 59.1 degrees, not 74 degrees.

Tomi performed a dedicated plane scan using a fixed staring camera. On the night of 7-8 February, he finally nabbed the elusive payload (see the discovery image above), while it was at ~3400 km altitude descending towards perigee. He used a WATEC 902H2 Ultimate camera with a 1.2/50 mm lens and 10 seconds integration.

Subsequent observations show that OTV-7 is in a 38840 x 323 km, 59.1 degree inclined Highly Elliptical Orbit. Perigee is just North of the equatorial region (currently clearly North of it near latitude 30 N, but short after launch it was at a lower latitude near 15 N).

(a Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) is an orbit with a low perigee - generally at a few hundred km altitude -  and distant apogee, at 35 000 km altitude or more. As a result, the shape of the orbit is highly elliptical (highly elongated). An object in HEO typically makes two orbital revolutions a day. Due to the shape of its orbit, it spents most of its time in the higher parts of the orbit and a relatively small amount of time near perigee. When apogee is over high latitudes, as is usually the case for these orbits, this allows a long dwell-time over these latitudes with view of a very large area (a full hemisphere when in apogee). HEO orbits are hence the polar equivalents of a GeoSynchronous Orbit (GEO) and often used for communications relay or long-term monitoring of areas. They are a favoured orbit for Communications, SIGINT and Infra-Red missile launch monitoring. The OTV 7 HEO is unusual in that perigee is not over the southern hemisphere).

 

orbit of X-37B OTV-7 as of 10 Feb 2024. Click to enlarge

The observed orbital plane of the object matches well with a launch from Cape Canaveral on 29 December 1:07 UTC. Together with the fact that the orbit is quite unusual for a HEO object with it's Northern hemishere perigee location, an identification with OTV 7 is very likely.

Propagating the orbit backwards, the suggestion is that, after initial launch into a 51.5 degree inclined low coasting orbit, it was pushed into HEO by a manoeuvre when crossing the descending node, about half a revolution after launch. It subsequently probably manoeuvered a couple of times, adjusting apogee and perhaps also inclination. 

The upper stage probably did a second manoeuvre after payload separation, changing its inclination to 74 degrees as suggested by the shape, orientation and location of the deorbit area from the Navigational Warnings related to the launch.

click map to enlarge

The map above plots the current orbit of OTV 7 propagated back to the day of launch, as well as the estimated initial low coasting orbit.

As can be seen, the OTV 7 orbit after one revolution actually does cross over the deorbit area from the Navigational Warnings: but in an oblique way that does not seem to match the orientation of the area. This is why I believe that the upper stage after payload separation was boosted into a higher inclined orbit. Perhaps as a collision avoidance manoeuvre (but the implied magnitude of the inclination change, 15 degrees, is rather large), perhaps - but that is pure speculation - it might have delivered a second payload to a higher inclination.

Because their orbital inclinations are about half a degree apart, I did look into a possible relation with another odd object launched into an odd orbit recently: USA 310. Their orbits are quite dissimilar though: USA 310 is in a circular MEO orbit inclined by 58.5 degrees, not a HEO orbit. I do note that their orbital planes, even though quite dissimilar, are 90 degrees apart. But most likely, that is coincidence.

click to enlarge

It will be interesting to follow OTV 7, and see whether it changes orbital altitude as often as the missions to LEO did (see this post from a few years ago).

A re-usable space-plane in HEO: who had that in the cards for 2024....?!

Let's see if they can get it back at some point.