Space Force: X-37B startet neuartiges Weltraummanöver

So it sounds like they’re going to aerobrake, change orbit, then pull out of it and stay in orbit. The novel part is that usually you aerobrake only as part of reentry?

>and safely dispose of its service module components in accordance with recognized standards for space debris mitigation.

If I understand this correctly, while it’s breaking it will essentially toss stuff overboard to burn up. That’s interesting. I wonder if they decided that bringing those components back was unnecessary re-entry and landing weight. *

Are these kinds of maneuvers visible? Do they interact with enough atmosphere to heat up and glow as in the article’s illustration?

*edit: Maybe there’s something deployed from the craft that can’t be easily re-packed. Or they just want to test this ejection capability.