Air Force’s Mysterious Spaceplane Finally Lands After Spending Nearly 3 Years in Orbit

The U.S. Space Force’s spaceplane touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after spending almost three years orbiting round Earth on a secretive mission.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (OTV-6) landed on November 12 at 5:22 a.m. ET, setting a brand new document of 908 days in orbit. The Boeing-built reusable automobile’s earlier document had been 780 consecutive days in orbit.

The spaceplane took off in May 2020, launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This marked the sixth flight of the mysterious spaceplane above Earth, carrying payloads for the U.S. navy, in addition to NASA.

The uncrewed spaceplane additionally carried a service module to extend its payload capability to orbit. The service module didn’t return to Earth, nevertheless, because it was discarded and disposed of previous to reentry.

As the title suggests, the spaceplane is an airplane-spacecraft hybrid that’s capable of launch into orbit like a spacecraft earlier than touchdown horizontally again on Earth like an airplane. The Space Force didn’t specify the precise capabilities of its spaceplane, however famous that it will be capable of carry experiments to orbit and convey them again to Earth for evaluation.

“This mission highlights the Space Force’s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force (DAF),” General Chance Saltzman, chief of Space Operations, mentioned in a statement.

The mission payload included a photo voltaic power experiment designed by the Naval Research Lab that’s meant to seize daylight and convert it into electrical power, along with the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-8. NASA additionally loaded the spaceplane with its personal experiments, together with the Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space (METIS-2), which can research the results of area publicity on completely different supplies.

Aside from this, it’s not completely clear what the spaceplane was doing up there for the previous 908 days. The U.S. Space Force has shared little details about its reusable automobile and it was unclear as to when the automobile was going to land.

Similarly, China not too long ago launched its personal spaceplane on August 4, and the reusable spacecraft experiment continues to be aloft until right now with no phrase on when it’s going to land.

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