US Military’s Mysterious Spaceplane May Have Limited Horizon (1)

The US Space Force’s shadowy spaceplane, the X-37B, was launched on its eighth lengthy orbital mission but its role in the superpower’s fast-expanding space defense efforts such as Golden Dome may be limited — and the future of winged spacecraft is unclear.

The uncrewed vehicle took off as scheduled Thursday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:50 p.m. local time.

The highly classified system, developed by Boeing Co., has been flying since 2010. The US Air Force, which operates the X-37B alongside the Space Force, says it is “the ideal ...