On Friday, the Space Force published a picture taken last year from a camera mounted on the secretive X-37B space plane while high above the Earth. Space.com notes that the “one other glimpse” of the plane in space was while it was “deploying from Falcon Heavy’s upper stage” during its December 2023 launch.

The United States Space Force has unexpectedly published a picture its top-secret X-37B space plane took while orbiting the Earth last year. The image, which the military arm shared on X-formerly-Twitter last week,

According to Boeing, the X-37B has a body and landing operation similar to the Space Shuttle, however it is smaller, measuring in at just one-fourth the size of the shuttle. "The X-37B design combines the best of aircraft and spacecraft into an affordable system that is easy to operate and maintain," the description read.

A rare photo of earth from the United States Space Force's secretive X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle was released by the Space Force on Friday.

We've never before seen the mysterious spacecraft in orbit, and only the U.S. Air Force knows what its doing up there

For the first time, the US military shared an orbital selfie from its mysterious X-37B space plane, which captured Earth from high above Africa.

X-37B floats in the upper portion of the picture, one of its gallium arsenide solar panels visible on the left. The Space Force said the image was captured by an "onboard camera used to ensure the health and safety of [X-37B].