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Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Lands After Record 780 Days In Orbit

posted by cmn32480 on Monday October 28 2019, @10:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the sooper-secret-space-shuttle dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] An unmanned X-37B space plane landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, wrapping up a record 780 days in orbit, the US Air Force said Sunday. The mission breaks the mysterious plane's own record by spending more than two years in space.

[...] Altogether, the program, which has at least two of the reusable planes, has spent 2,865 days in space over the course of five missions, the Air Force said. The fifth mission launched on Sept. 7, 2017.

The Boeing-built space planes resemble a smaller version of NASA's old space shuttles and have a similar re-entry trajectory that uses a runway, like the old shuttles. They feature a small payload bay and use a deployable solar array for power.

The 11,000-pound vehicle is about 29 feet long with a wingspan of just under 15 feet and was designed to stay in orbit for 270 days. It was originally a NASA program, with roots in the space agency's lifting-body research, that ran from 1999 to 2004. The X-37B is designed to serve as a platform for experiments and to offer insights on transporting satellite sensors and other equipment to and from space.

[ed: Nuked dead link on "originally a NASA program' —chromas]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @10:56PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 28 2019, @10:56PM (#913007)

    It had meatbag crew and tried to test how long they can go eating only pizza rolls. Guess 780 days is it.

  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday October 29 2019, @12:04AM

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 29 2019, @12:04AM (#913036) Journal

    They just landed because they had enough cotton to knit a shirt and wanted to show up the Chinese.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 29 2019, @12:40AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 29 2019, @12:40AM (#913053)

    Pizza rolls are the finest gourmet space food.

  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday October 29 2019, @04:25AM

    by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday October 29 2019, @04:25AM (#913120) Homepage Journal

    Actually, the answer was 779 days.