X-37B Spaceplane mission OTV 8 located on orbit

OTV 8 imaged by Kevin Fetter 5 hours after launch. Image (c) Kevin Fetter, used with permission

OTV 8, the 8th mission of the US Space Force's X-37B Spaceplane, launched on 22 August 2025 at 03:50 UTC. It has been catalogued as 2025-183A (cat. nr. 65271) under the name of  'USA 555', along with a second payload, called LIMASAT (2025-183B, 65272). The latter has probably been dispensed from the OTV 8 service module.

Five hours after launch, Kevin Fetter managed to observe OTV 8. Above is one of his images, showing OTV 8 as a short bright trail in a partly cloudy sky. 

A preliminary orbit fit suggests that OTV 8 is in a 327 x 334 km, 49.5 degree inclined orbit [update 25 Aug 2025: the latest improved orbit update shows it in a 331 x 342 km, 49.5 degree inclined orbit]: a slightly (~20 km) lower orbital altitude than my initial pre-launch guess but otherwise a quite comparable orbit.

Click image to enlarge

 

An overview of the OTV missions so far: 

MISSION  ORBITER  LAUNCH   INCL   ORBIT   DURATION
--------------------------------------------------
OTV 1    I        2010     40.0   LEO     224 days
OTV 2    II       2011     42.8   LEO     468 days
OTV 3    I        2012     43.5   LEO     674 days
OTV 4    II       2015     38.0   LEO     717 days
OTV 5    II       2017     54.5   LEO     780 days
OTV 6    I        2020     45.0   LEO     909 days
OTV 7    II       2023     59.1   HEO     435 days
OTV 8    I        2025     49.5   LEO         tbd
--------------------------------------------------

Bad weather in the Netherlands has so far precluded me from trying to observe the latest launch.
 

EDIT (24 August 2025): 

I imaged both the USSF-36 payloads (OTV 8 and Limasat) in the early morning of 24 August, see this follow-up blogpost with footage.