How America’s secret space plane has been in orbit for over a year — and no one knows what

[John F Kennedy III]

How America’s secret space plane has been in orbit for over a year — and no one knows what it’s doing

Ted Thornhill
Mail Online
March 8, 2012

The U.S Air Force’s highly secret unmanned space plane was supposed to stay in space for nine months, but it’s now been there for a year and three days – and no one knows what it’s doing.

The experimental craft has been circling Earth at 17,000 miles per hour and was due to land in California in December.

However the mission of the X-37B orbital test vehicle was extended – for unknown reasons.

rest here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2112146/Mystery-U-S-X-37B-space-plane-orbit-year.html

[Zippyjuan]

The extention was announced in November: http://www.spaceblogalpha.com/2011/11/x-37b-mission-extended-by-usaf.html

They may just be trying to see how long it can stay up there- and in support against proposed budget cuts against the program so the can say "see what it can do!".



Tuesday, November 29, 2011

X-37B mission extended by U.S.A.F.

Air Force officials are normally very tight-lipped about their X-37B, a robotic mini-shuttle that was originally intended for manned missions by NASA before being pressed into flying classified missions, but they have confirmed the spacecraft’s present mission has been extended.

The experimental craft has been circling Earth for about nine months, but had been expected to land this week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Today an Air Force official confirmed that the mission will be extended and a future landing date has not yet been slated, according to the Associated Press.


The secretive X-37B robotic space plane is about to set its own space-endurance record on a hush-hush project operated by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.

The craft, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle-2, was boosted into Earth orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 5. Tomorrow (Nov. 30), the X-37B spacecraft will mark its 270th day of flight — a lifetime in space that was heralded in the past as the vehicle's upper limit for spaceflight by project officials.

"It's still up there," U.S. Air Force Maj. Tracy Bunko of the Air Force Press Desk at the Pentagon, told SPACE.com, noting that project officials planned for a 9- month-plus mission, "so we're close to that now."