The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is an unmanned space plane design that twice has successfully ventured into orbit on secret missions for the U.S. Air Force.
The US Air Force and Boeing, which made the X-37B, are happy to discuss the launches and landings and also describe this vehicle’s remarkable endurance, but further details of what this vehicle has achieved whilst in orbit are still hush-hush.
. Just don’t bother asking detailed questions about what they’re doing with all that time in orbit.
The first X-37B space plane (OTV-1) was aloft for 224 days, over 7 months, before landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December, 2010/
The second mission of an X-37B unmanned space plane (the OTV-2) extended the time aloft to 469 days, (over one year and 3 months in space), comfortably doubling the flight duration of the first space plane.
Those of us who mourned the end of the Space Shuttle program have a new craft to watch.
The possibilities seem awesome!