Air Force Reusable Spacecraft Lands After Over 600 Days in Orbit
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USAF(NEW YORK) — After nearly two years in space, the mysterious U.S. Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday.
The Air Force has never specifically said what the unmanned, reusable spacecraft did in space.
“The OTV-3 conducted on-orbit experiments for 674 days during its mission extending the total number of days spent on-orbit for the OTV program to 1367 days,” an Air Force press release says.
The program’s manager said that the landing “marks a hallmark event for the program.”
“The mission is our longest to day and we’re pleased with the incremental progress we’ve seen in our testing of the reusable space plane,” the program manager added.
The Air Force described the X-37B as the “newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft.”
A fourth X-37B mission is expected to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 2015.
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