SpaceX will launch the X-37B on a Falcon Heavy rocket Dec. 7

I want to know what this thing is so bad. Also wonder what are the odds that space force has put people into space and brought them back at this point, and what is the timeframe they envision for doing such things if not.

I&#x27;m so curious what is causing this to launch on a Falcon Heavy!<p>Previous launches of the X-37B have been on a Falcon 9 with an RTLS landing, and now this one is using one of the largest launchers there is.<p>What is it doing with all that delta-v!?

Fantasy thoughts<p>SAR x-ray (what)<p>Or in orbit x ray of other satellites (emitter and receiver on other side).<p>I just think any kind of legit scanning has to be against the object being scanned. Muon tomography too

China is suspected to have a space plane with similar capabilities. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.space.com&#x2F;china-space-plane-lands-may-2023" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.space.com&#x2F;china-space-plane-lands-may-2023</a>

Will there be a surge in injuries to workers over the next month?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;investigates&#x2F;special-report&#x2F;spacex-musk-safety&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;investigates&#x2F;special-report&#x2F;spacex-m...</a>

Previously Musk declined to enable Starlink over Crimea to prevent SpaceX hardware from being used to wage war (the Ukrainians asked him to enable it for a drone strike).<p>Now, I am told DoD is in charge of where Starlink is geofenced (and the Ukrainians in the military are happy, which suggests he was overruled), and SpaceX is launching a full&#x2F;heavy X37B in the middle of a proxy war with Russia (who has recently tested antisatellite weapons).<p>I worry this will subject future SpaceX&#x2F;Starlink hardware to retaliation should certain geopolitical conflicts escalate.<p>I also wonder what the odds of FAA approval of Starship tests being gated on SpaceX doing whatever the military wants are. It’s not like the Americans with a monopoly on orbital weapons are gonna let someone just walk up and usurp them because they built the hardware.<p>Unfortunately stories like this won’t ever get told in my lifetime, if ever.

The X-37B is a military vessel, and the US already has a civilian space-exploration agency in NASA, suggesting that the payload is indeed of a military nature.<p>It is absolutely abhorrent to see that the nation-states of planet Sol III are resuming the misguided attempts to take their petty intra-planetary conflicts into space. I feel like in one of those Star Trek episodes where one alien group is trying to get a leg up on the other by petitioning the Federation ship in orbit to help them against their quite-similar enemies.