The "Secret" Spaceplane

[Graham Kennedy]

Source

The US Air Force's secret spaceplane X-37B OTV-2 has finally returned to Earth, after spending a record-setting 15 months in orbit.

These X-37B orbital test vehicles are Boeing-built unmanned planes that are about a fourth the size of a Nasa space shuttle. They've got solar panels, automatic guidance and nifty thermal silica ceramic thermal protection tiles so it can shrug off the heat of atmospheric reentry.

The Air Force says that the vehicles have been going into orbit "to conduct on-orbit experiments, primarily checkout of the vehicle itself." We also know that there's a super-secret payload on board -- a detail that has fuelled much speculation and rumour.

The first Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-1) flew from April to December 2010. For its successor, the Air Force wanted to go for even longer.

Interesting... I assume these things are unmanned. Used for launching spy satellites and returning them to Earth?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Well, it does say right in that quote you posted they're unmanned.

[Graham Kennedy]

So it does. Idiot moment for me there.

[Mikey]

15 months and still in condition to return properly? Not bad. I wouldn't have thought the USAF could pull it off.

[Sonic Glitch]

Really? What gave you that idea? You don't actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat do you?

Personally I'm waiting for the surprise twist that it was manned

[IanKennedy]

Yes, it's so "Secret" that the USAF have a web page for it, and they provided the picture for this article:

http://www.af.mil/information/factsheet ... fsID=16639

Cool to see the US getting back into space in a reusable way, even if it's unmanned.