It came from outer space, on its own, and landed on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The Boeing-built X-37B is the U.S. Air Force’s first unpiloted re-entry spacecraft. It landed today in the early morning hours after performing an autonomous reentry. Launched last April from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the robot space plane circled Earth for more than 220 days.
Today’s landing culminates a successful mission based on close teamwork between the 30th Space Wing, Boeing and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (AFRCO), said Lt Col Troy Giese, X-37B program manager from the AFRCO.
“We are very pleased that the program completed all the on-orbit objectives for the first mission,” Giese said in a press statement.
The unique space plane carried a classified cargo within its payload bay.
OTV-1’s de-orbit and landing mark the transition from the on-orbit demonstration phase to a refurbishment phase for the program.
The Air Force is preparing to launch the next X-37B, OTV-2, in Spring 2011 aboard an Atlas V booster.
By LD/CSE