The
US Air Force is getting ready to land X-37B, an unmanned space plane that can
both enter orbit and land without human intervention, and has spent a record of
665 consecutive days on a low-earth orbit mission. Tuesday is the date set for
the return of X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. The space craft is currently orbiting
at 28,044km/h, at a distance of around 350km into the sky. It is unsure exactly
what the X-37B is being used for, but the one definitive thing the Air Force
will say about it is that it has no plans to develop a manned version. The
spacecraft measures up at 29 feet long and 9.5 feet high, about one-fifth of
the size of the retired NASA space shuttles. As always with top secret
programs, there has been much speculation online about what is being done with
the aircraft, theories range from surveillance to a platform for a new
generation of kinetic weapons that can be used from space.
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