US Air Force's X-37B Space Plane Lands After Record 780-Day Mystery Mission [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Tariq Malik 10 hours ago Spaceflight

What was it doing up there?



A U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane, an unpiloted miniature space shuttle, is seen after landing at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Oct. 27, 2019 to end its record 780-day
OTV-5 mission. (Image: © U.S. Air Force)


The U.S. Air Force's unpiloted X-37B space plane landed back on Earth Sunday (Oct. 27) after a record 780 days in orbit , racking up the fifth ultra-long mission for the military's mini-shuttle fleet.

The X-37B's Orbital Test Vehicle 5 (OTV-5) mission ended with a smooth autonomous touchdown at the Shuttle Landing Facility of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 3:51 a.m. EDT (0751 GMT), Air Force officials said. The mission originally launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sept. 7, 2017.

With the successful landing, OTV-5 broke the previous X-37B mission record of 718 days set by the OTV-4 mission in May 2017. OTV-5 is the second X-37B mission to land at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility (OTV-4 was the first), with previous missions landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

"The safe return of this spacecraft, after breaking its own endurance record, is the result of the innovative partnership between Government and Industry," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein said in a statement. "The sky is no longer the limit for the Air Force and, if Congress approves, the U.S. Space Force."

More:
https://www.space.com/x-37b-space-plane-otv5-lands-after-780-days.html