The US military’s X-37B spaceplane is about to begin a series of new maneuvers, according to rare official information about the spacecraft. The X-37B robot drone has been in a highly elliptical orbit for 10 months since launching on its seventh mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in late December last year.

The spacecraft has been conducting radiation exposure experiments and testing Space Domain Awareness technologies, but will now begin using Earth’s atmosphere to modify its orbit.

A series of air braking maneuvers use the resistance of the Earth’s atmosphere. This will help lower the X-37B’s orbit from its current elliptical high-Earth orbit while using a minimal amount of fuel, Space Force officials said.

Once the spacecraft enters a lower, more circular orbit, it will eject components of the service module. This means the components will remain in orbit for a much shorter period of time than if they were dropped into high Earth orbit, which meets accepted standards for space debris reduction.

Related: Secret US Space Force X-37B Space Plane: 10 Surprising Facts

“This new and effective series of maneuvers demonstrates the Space Force’s commitment to revolutionary innovations in the conduct of national security missions in space,” U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a statement. he said.

This will be the first time the X-37B will perform dynamic air braking manoeuvres. The space force says the tests build on previous X-37B missions, as well as general lessons the scientific community has learned over decades from Moon and Mars missions.

Gen. Chance Salzman, Chief of Space Operations, added that the X-37B maneuvers were “an incredibly important milestone for the U.S. Space Force as we seek to expand our capability and capacity to operate in this complex domain.”

In the statement, it was stated that after the air brake maneuvers, the X-37B will return to its test and experimental missions. The spacecraft will then deorbit and land, as in the previous six missions.

The current flight of the X-37B is known as OTV-7 (“Orbital Test Vehicle-7”). The spaceplane was first launched in 2010 on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The mission immediately preceding OTV-7 was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and spent 908 days in orbit. China recently landed its own secret reusable spaceplane after a 268-day mission.