U.S. Airforce's Secretive Space Plane X-37B Returns 2 Years Later

     "The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to and examined, on Earth." Not exactly the most illuminating description on the Air Force's fact sheet but none the less we know that after two years this un-manned space plane has landed. This US Air Force space plane is just one of the two X-37B vehicles in the Pentagon's stock. It landed Friday morning in California a the Vandenberg Air Force Base at the 30th Space Wing after 22 months or 674 days in space.

     In the Air Force's statement they said "The mission is our longest to date and we're pleased with the incremental progress we've seen in our testing of the reusable space plane". This seems to be the most information that the Air Force will digress as they have only said very very little about the X-37B and its missions ever. 

     There are of course theories and speculations on what the space vehicle may be doing up there but these vary from study of extra terrestrials to satellite launching. So in short there is really no answer as to what this space plane might be up there doing. It could merely be long cruises to judge how a space plane with no human could be thrown into orbit to come back at a certain time. After all it is not easy to prefect algorithms for space plane maneuvering without testable information.

     It's nice to see either way that we still have an interest in space even since we have already gotten to the moon. Seems after that we have lost interest. Either way hopefully they are accomplishing something worthwhile up there whether they want to share that information or not.

Sources: Space
                CNet