After spending 22 months in space, the U.S. Air Force space plane X-37B landed at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Friday at 9:24 a.m. PDT.
"I'm extremely proud of our team for coming together to execute this third safe and successful landing," said Col. Keith Balts, commander of the 30th Space Wing, which is headquartered at Vandenberg, in a statement. "Everyone from our on-console space operators to our airfield managers and civil engineers take pride in this unique mission and exemplify excellence during its execution."
The Air Force sent out two X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles (OTVs) since 2010 for missions that were not disclosed to the public. The officials maintained that the vehicles were intended to demonstrate reusable unmanned spacecraft technologies to fly and return experiments to Earth, as well as test future satellite missions. Other speculations implied that it could be related to secret weapons or surveillance activities.The OTV was deployed in December 2012 aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing," the Air Force said.
The space plane landed smoothly after orbiting the Earth for 675 days. The crew members approached the X-37B vehicle to make sure that it is safe to be towed back to the hangar. Its return becomes the second landing of the vehicle sustaining its viability as a reusable spacecraft.
It is expected that the X-37B vehicle will be moved to the newly-leased space hangars that the Air Force secured from NASA last week. The military chose to relocate the X-37B mission to Florida to lessen operation costs. Renovations of the two space shuttle hangars are ongoing and expected to be completed by end of the year.
