The U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane has broken its own all-time endurance record in orbit after more than 470 days of circling the Earth on a mystery mission for the American military.
The X-37B space plane currently in orbit in flying the Orbital Test Vehicle 3 (OTV-3) mission, the third long-duration flight of the unmanned Air Force spaceflight program. The miniature space shuttle launched on Dec. 11, 2012 and surpassed the record for longest X-37B spaceflight on Wednesday (March 26).
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is used to loft the Air Force’s X-37B missions.
The robotic space plane supports space experimentation, risk reduction, and concept
of operations development for long duration and reusable space vehicle technologies.
Until now, the record for the longest X-37B mission is 469 days, set by the program's OTV-2 mission that was launched in 2011.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is used to loft the Air Force’s X-37B missions.
The robotic space plane supports space experimentation, risk reduction, and concept
of operations development for long duration and reusable space vehicle technologies.
Until now, the record for the longest X-37B mission is 469 days, set by the program's OTV-2 mission that was launched in 2011.
The OTV-3 mission in orbit today now uses the first of the Air Force's two X-37B space plane vehicles. The same spacecraft was used to fly the first-ever X-37B mission (the 225-day OTV-1 flight in 2010), while a second vehicle flew the longer OTV-2 mission a year later.
The U.S. military's X-37B space planes launch into orbit atop an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from a pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. During launch, the space planes are encapsulated inside a protective shroud.
At the end of their respective flights, both the OTV-1 and OTV-2 craft missions flew themselves back to Earth on autopilot, each time touching down on a tarmac at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
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