Airforce X-37b Returns

The Air-force's ultra secret, space shuttle looking, X-37b has returned from space to Vandenberg Air-force Base after an astonishing 674 days or 22 months.  That is virtually all the public knows about what the X-37b is conducting.  That and the enigmatic "on orbit experiments"

"The mission is our longest to date and we're pleased with the incremental progress we've seen in our testing of the reusable space plane," the Air Force said in a statement.

The Cnet news article went on to report that "The Air Force also said it plans to start the next X-37B mission sometime in 2015, launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida."

 

The X-37b space plane is unique in that the Air Force owns the entire fleet of two craft. 

 

Here is the complete C/Net article which has some really good info on the X-37b

X-37b Back From Space After 469 Days!

The Air Force's * cough* spy *cough * "space" plane made a trouble free landing at California's Vandenberg Airforce base after a record setting 469 days in orbit.

Overtly the Air Force was testing the robotic space plane for endurance. The Boing built craft as the Air Force describes it, as a research vehicle, going so far as to carry various experimental packages in it's payload area. One thing that seems to be clear is that the Air Force is unlikely to be developing let alone building any follow on craft to the X37c which was purported to have the capacity to carry personnel.

Check out the complete Dvice article here

What is The Air Force Using the X-37B Space Plane For?

Xnewsman sends in a piece from the Huffington Press concerning the highly secretive X-37B Space Plane that is being flown in low Earth orbit. The plane has been in space more than a year, which has raised suspicious speculation of everything from spying on the Chinese spacelab called Tiangong-1, to spy radar focusing on ground based installations. Check out the video....