Air Force Mystery Space Plane Set for Next Secret Mission
Air Force Mystery Space Plane Set for Next Secret Mission
The U.S. military’s mysterious X-37B space plane is headed back into the great beyond to do… whatever it does up there.
The X-37B is slated for its third launch in October, the Air Force said, but like its two orbital predecessors, the mission of the unmanned spacecraft remains shrouded in secrecy. The exact timing of the October spaceflight, dubbed Orbital Test Vechicle-3 or OTV-3, is also tentative.
“We are on track for the launch of the X-37B to occur next month, but the exact date of the launch is dependent on a number of factors including range conditions and weather,” Air Force spokesperson Lt. Col. John Dorrian told ABC News. The 29-foot-long vehicle is set to launch aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from the Florida station of Cape Canaveral.
The pioneer voyage of the X-37B, called OTV-1, began in April of 2010 and lasted 225 days, eventually landing in December of the same year at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The second orbit, OTV-2, touched down on the same base this past June following a record-breaking 469 day travel.
“For this third launch, while the vehicle is the same… we are considering landing it at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida instead of the previous base,” said Dorrian. “We are looking to save money and make use of previous investments and infrastructure already available.”