The U.S. Space Force ’s spaceplane touched down at NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after spending two and a one-half years orbiting around Earth on a closelipped mission .
TheX-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6(OTV-6 ) land on November 12 at 5:22 a.m. ET , setting a new record of 908 day in orbit . The Boeing - build reusable fomite ’s previous record had been 780 consecutive Day in reach .
The spaceplane took off in May 2020 , launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station . This nock the sixth flying of the mystifying spaceplane above Earth , carrying payloads for the U.S. military machine , as well as NASA .
The uncrewed spaceplane landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility.Photo: U.S. Space Force
The uncrewed spaceplane also carry a service module to increase its payload capacity to orbit . The service module did n’t return to Earth , however , as it was discarded and put away of prior to reentry .
As the name suggest , the spaceplane is an plane - ballistic capsule loan-blend that ’s able-bodied to launch into reach like a spacecraft before landing horizontally back on Earth like an airplane . The Space Force did n’t delineate the exact capability of its spaceplane , but note that it would be able to bear experiments to orbit and bring them back to Earth for analysis .
“ This missionary work highlights the Space Force ’s focussing on collaboration in space geographic expedition and expanding depressed - cost approach to space for our partner , within and outside of the Department of the Air Force ( DAF ) , ” General Chance Saltzman , chief of Space Operations , said in astatement .
The mission payload include a solar free energy experiment designed by the Naval Research Lab that ’s meant to capture sunlight and exchange it into electrical energy , in addition to the U.S. Air Force Academy ’s FalconSat-8 . NASA also debase the spaceplane with its own experiments , including the Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space ( METIS-2 ) , which will study the effects of place exposure on different materials .
Aside from this , it ’s not entirely clear what the spaceplane was doing up there for the past 908 days . The U.S. Space Force has shared little data about its reusable fomite and it was unreadable as to when the fomite was going to shoot down .
Similarly , China recently launch its own spaceplaneon August 4 , and the reusable space vehicle experimentation is still aloft till today with no word on when it ’s locomote to land .
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