The United States Space Force has released an official image of a space plane intercepting an enemy satellite; This perhaps shows a hint of what we can expect if orbital warfare is in our future.

Space Operations Command (SpOC), which provides the U.S. Space Force’s orbital combat and reconnaissance capabilities, unveiled the table at a ceremony at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado on October 20. The work called “High Ground Intersection” was commissioned. It was created in collaboration with artist Rick Herter and is the first official SpOC painting.

The image shows a roughly delta-shaped spaceplane called a “futuristic interceptor” opening its payload bay door as it moves into position to attack a hostile satellite that is itself targeting a friendly spacecraft. The spacecraft is reminiscent of former US military spacecraft such as the X-20 Dyna-Soar and even today’s very mysterious X-37B, but SPoC emphasizes that the spacecraft pictured are fictional.

“Due to the highly classified nature of many space operations, SpOC asked Herter to rely on historic space aircraft and his own imagination,” SpOC historian Christopher Rumley said in the Space Force statement.

Drawing a completely conventional space plane isn’t easy, artist Herter said, because there’s so little reference material to work with. “The most challenging projects are when the client gives the artist a general concept of what they want but cannot provide details,” Herter said in a statement. said. “I created a rough model of my spaceplane design to get the correct proportions and angles of the vehicle in the design, which I can then use as a reference.”

While the U.S. Space Force has created units dedicated solely to targeting enemy satellites, their orbital warfare capabilities are not fully known because they, like most of the U.S. military’s space assets, are highly classified.

The space force operates the experimental X-37B spaceplane to launch classified payloads into orbit to test them before the aircraft returns to Earth, whereupon the payloads can be retrieved and examined. Most other details about the X-37B are unknown.

The spacecraft used as the reference for High Ground Intercept, the X-20 Dyna-Soar, was developed by Boeing in the late 1950s as a reusable spacecraft and anti-satellite platform. They even had ideas of using the X-20 to drop bombs at high altitude and speed.

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, was secretly selected for the Dyna-Soar test mode, but the program was canceled before the first flight. But his legacy lives on and influences the design of NASA’s space shuttle. Source