A fiery light returned to the skies over Cape Canaveral, Florida, shortly after sunset on Dec. 28 as a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blazed another trail into the heavens. Its passenger was the United States Air Force’s (USAF) secret unmanned spaceplane known as the X-37B.
This launch was the ninth flight of the three-core launch vehicle—which is currently the second-most powerful in operation after the Space Launch System (SLS), the new moon rocket from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA)—and the seventh flight of the X-37B.
