The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle ’s third mission ( OTV-3 ) come to an final stage on October 17 when the unmanned craftlanded safely and autonomouslyat Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California after 675 Clarence Day in scope . Altogether , the three missions have add 1367 days , and a fourth missionary work is wait to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida sometime in 2015 . The task , headed by Air Force Space Command ( AFSPC ) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) , is classify . As such , no one really knows what OTV-3 has been doing up there for intimately 2 long time .
The Air Force has been evenhandedly vague about the missionary station . The spaceplanewas saidto be test “ advanced guidance , navigation and control , thermal protection arrangement , avionics , high temperature anatomical structure and seal , conformal reusable detachment , lightweight electromechanical flight of stairs system , and independent orbital flying , reentry and landing place . ”
TheBoeing X-37Bis a alter edition of the NASA ’s X-37 design . The remote-controlled craftsmanship intended for crushed Earth eye socket look like a small version of the space shuttle at only 29 - foot - long with a 15 - animal foot wingspan . Like the infinite shuttle , it is launched vertically using Atlas V rockets , though it is capable to land horizontally on a runway , like a plane . Solar panel charge the spaceplane ’s atomic number 3 ion shelling once it has lead Earth ’s aura . Though it was design to persist in orbit for 270 days , it has far exceed those expectations .
The Air Forceclaimsthat the object of the X-37B are to germinate “ reusable spacecraft engineering for America ’s future in space and operating experimentation which can be hark back to , and analyze , on Earth . ” However , it does n’t seem probable that it will be used to remember satellite . Its cargo area is rather small at about 7 feet by 4 feet , so it is not light what it could be express or what its payload might have been during OTV-3 .
Thelatitudesat which it was observed while in orbit rules out any chance it could have been doing reconnaissance mission on Russia . If it were doing data accumulation , it was likely targeting the Middle East , Southeast Asia , or Northern Africa — none of which would be in particular surprising .
The secrecy of the mission and the fact that DARPA and the Air Force are at the helm have caught the attention of conspiracy theorist who bang tospeculate . Some have affirm that the X-37B was used for deploying bombs , intervene with satellites of other countries , spying on China ’s upcoming quad place , among other possibility . However , many of these are not practical for the X-37B ’s plan .
It ’s hard to tell just when the X-37B ’s purpose will be revealed . Unless AFSPC decides to put out that information , the documents could remain classified for a farseeing meter . harmonize toExecutive Order 13526 , all documents are to be unclassified after a full point of 25 years . However , under extenuating setting , the papers describing the charge could stay classified indefinitely .
