Air Force's X-37B Space Plane Lands in Florida After Record-Breaking Mission

After circling Earth for an unprecedented 718 days, the X-37B touched down Sunday May 7 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida — the first landing at the SLF since the final space shuttle mission came back to Earth in July 2011

The fourth mission, known as OTV-4, was launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the first three landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But Air Force officials have said they want to consolidate X-37B launch and touchdown operations on Florida's Space Coast, so Sunday's landing might be the first of many at the SLF (Shuttle Landing Facility). 

X-37B Due to Break Longest Time in Space Record

The U.S. Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane has now spent 600 days in Earth orbit on the vessel's latest mission, and is nearing a program record for longest time spent in space.

The robotic X-37B lifted off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 20, 2015, kicking off the program's fourth space mission (which is known as Orbital Test Vehicle-4, or OTV-4).

If the uncrewed spacecraft spends 74 more days aloft, it will break the duration record set during OTV-3, which touched down in October 2014.

But it's unclear how long OTV-4 will last, or just what the X-37B is doing as it circles Earth; most details about the space plane's missions and payloads are classified.

This SPACE.com infographic depicts the B Orbital Test Vehicle is an unmanned space test vehicle for the USAF. See how the unmanned space drone works here.

 For more information, press the HERE link

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....

Airforce Lalunches another spy plane

On the heals of the historic mission when in December the X-37B became the United States' first unmanned vehicle to return from space and land on its own. Now a second Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, left Cape Canaveral, Fla. atop an Atlas V rocket. The X-37B, which was originally a NASA project, has the potential to pick up where the space shuttle program will leave off, least that is what Boing is saying - the Air-Force's position is that the program "has the potential to make space experiments more affordable. But the lack of clear mission statements past the overt, has lent the X-37B program an air of intrigue. Speculation has lead to suggesting the OTV may facilitate the development of combat and weapons systems. While others have suggested that the unmanned craft could be used as an orbital spy vehicle.

The latest mission is scheduled to last about 270 days, but the Air Force said that might be extended. The first craft stayed in orbit 224 days.

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