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| The space plane 37-B lands after two years of orbiting the Earth |
While all the missions that SpaceX performs are covered in detail and we all look forward to the upcoming news surrounding Virgin Galactic's attempts to commercialize space flight, the United States Air Force is busy quietly flying an experimental space plane around the earth.
We remembered that on Sunday when the X-37b unmanned orbital Test vehicle landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What is more impressive than the American army having a space aircraft in operation, is the fact that the X-37b managed to orbit the Earth for two years without problems, as far as we know.
The manager of the X-37b program, Lt. Col. Ron Fehlen, commented: "This mission once again established a record of resistance in orbit and marks the first landing of the vehicle in the state of Florida." "We are incredibly pleased with the performance of the space vehicle and excited about the data gathered to support the scientific and spatial communities."
US Air Force X-37b space plane
The X-37 spacecraft began as a NASA project in 1999 before being transferred to the U.S. Department of Defense in 2004. The first release occurred in 2010, the second in 2011, the third in 2012 and then this last OTV-4 mission, launched aboard a Atlas V rocket in May of 2015 and now stands as the longest flight for an experimental aircraft.
Almost everything related to the X-37b is classified. It is a project with an unknown budget for a spacecraft built by Boeing. It was initially financed through a collaboration between NASA, Boeing and the U.S. Air Force for a total of $192 million before another $301 million contract was awarded to Boeing by NASA in 2002. It has clearly spent much more in the last 15 years to continue development.
According to Reuters, while the X-37b was in orbit, more than 700 experiments were carried out. We don't know what they were, how much the mission costs, or what technology is hidden inside the shell of the space plane.
The next mission for the X-37b is already being planned. It will be launched from the Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, "later in 2017." Will the resistance record extend further?
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