VIDEO: Top Secret Air Force Spaceplane Lands With Sonic Boom After 2-Year Clandestine Mission



After 718 consecutive days of being in orbit, the X-37B spacecraft landed on Sunday morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The 29-foot-long spacecraft’s return caused a sonic boom that rattled central Florida and could be heard as far away as Tampa and Fort Myers.

The unmanned spacecraft had been orbiting Earth since May 2015 and was just 12 days shy of being in space for a full two years. The Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) beat its own previous record of 674 days in orbit set in October of 2014. This was the X-37B’s fourth secret mission, but first landing in Florida. Previous X-37B missions have landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spaceplane has now spent 2,085 days in orbit since its first mission in April of 2010.

While the landing was widely known thanks to a ground-shaking sonic boom, there is not much known about the unmanned spacecraft or its mission. Even the X-37B spacecraft’s budget is secret.

Here’s what the government did say about the top secret spacecraft in a statement: “an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force.”

“The landing of OTV-4 marks another success for the X-37B program and the nation,” X-37B program manager Lt. Col. Ron Fehlen said.

“This mission once again set an on-orbit endurance record and marks the vehicle’s first landing in the state of Florida,” Fehlen said in the statement. “We are incredibly pleased with the performance of the space vehicle and are excited about the data gathered to support the scientific and space communities. We are extremely proud of the dedication and hard work by the entire team.”

“The hard work of the X-37B OTV team and the 45th Space Wing successfully demonstrated the flexibility and resolve necessary to continue the nation’s advancement in space,” Randy Walden, the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement. “The ability to land, refurbish, and launch from the same location further enhances the OTV’s ability to rapidly integrate and qualify new space technologies.”

WHAT THE FUCK DOES ALL THIS EVEN MEAN!?!?!

US Airforce


AND WHY ARE THOSE DUDES WEARING SPACESUITS!?!?!

Curiously, the X-37 program began as a NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the U.S. Department of Defense in 2004. The X-37 was given to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on September 13, 2004, and became a classified project. So it would seem as though they are using the vehicle as some sort of spycraft and not a science-oriented project where they would plant tomatoes in the ship to see if they’ll grow in orbit.

Another X-37B spacecraft mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral later this year. But you won’t know what the clandestine mission is then either.

[Gizmodo]

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