The unpiloted Pentagon secretive spaceplane, X-37B made a successful landing on Sunday morning in Florida after one record-breaking long orbital journey of over 2 years, said the US Air Force. This caps the recent test mission meant for a variety of military techs.
The Boeing Co.-developed X-37B touched down at the Kennedy Space Center of Nasa at around 3.51 am ET post orbiting the Earth for 780 days. The spaceplane is the fifth mission of the US Air Force under OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle) programme, said the agency.
The X-37B, nearly the size of one tiny bus, shares several design features similar with the Space Shuttle of Nasa. It was sent in Earth’s orbit in the year 2017 attached to one Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX to carry out several classified tech experiments over a long time-span space environment.
Notably, the earlier X-37B mission went on for 718 days and touched down Earth in 2017. The Sunday’s landing tallies with 2865 days for the OTV programme overall, said the Air Force.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon, who had recently developed the United States Space Command, now is asking the Congress to give its approval for one proposed new military branch, known as Space Force.
