The Space Force's mysterious X-37B begins “aerobraking” operation to lower orbit. How it works (video)

“The U.S. military’s top-secret X-37B spaceplane is now a little less mysterious.”

In a rare show of candor about the spaceplane's operations, Boeing and the US Space Force released a statement last month saying the X-37B would soon begin a series of “aerobraking” maneuvers to close its orbit reduce waste and safely dispose of unnecessary hardware before it ends up on earth.

This week, Boeing Space released a video detailing how the aerobraking procedure works and why the X-37B performs it. In the video, a Boeing representative said the maneuver would help Boeing change the X-37B's flight altitude and “safely dispose of the service module components in accordance with accepted space debris containment standards.”

When satellites change orbit, they typically perform one or more burns using their onboard engines. However, this requires fuel, meaning each satellite can only perform a limited number of burns before it needs to be refueled or deorbited. Aerobraking, on the other hand, uses the friction of the Earth's atmosphere to steer a spacecraft into a new orbit.