Saturday, June 2, 2012
The US Air Force’s top-secret X-37B space plane will return to Earth next month after spending over a year in orbit.
The Boeing built X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2, or OTV-2, was launched in March 2011 atop a massive Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, FL.
It is due to land at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base sometime in early-to mid-June, with the exact date dependent on technical and weather conditions, the military said.
The US military originally said the 8.8-meter-long, 2.4-meter-wide craft, which is shaped like a small space shuttle, was supposed to spend up to 270 days in space.
OTV-2, funded out of the Pentagon’s budget, performed classified experiments for the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office.
SOURCE: News.com Australia