Secret space plane (X-37B ALTV)
On April 7, 2006, Scaled Composite’s famed “White Knight” took off from Mojave Airport with a top secret, unmanned aircraft funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Boeing Phantom Works and partially by NASA.
At 37,000 feet over the Edwards Air Force Base test range airspace, the White Knight (which launched the two SpaceShips that won the $10 million Ansari X prize) released the craft at 7:28 a.m. The unmanned craft’s mission was to glide to a safe landing at Edwards AFB seven miles below.
It did that, and then some.
The aircraft was the X-37 experimental spaceship, also known as the ALTV (Approach and Landing Test Vehicle). After release, the ALTV touched down on runway 22 at Edwards AFB at 7:31 a.m. PDT.
And kept going, rolling off the end of the runway to the embarrassment of whoever was in charge of brakes, with the nose gear said to be heavily damaged.
“ALTV’s autonomous landing sequence and initial touch-down were flawless and fully according to plan,” a spokesman said, “but A