Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

It's Baaack! XB-37B Finally Lands

Posted by timothy on from the ready-for-a-nice-classified-nap dept.

ColdWetDog writes "The US Air Force / DARPA 'baby shuttle,' the Boeing-built XB-37B has just landed after 469 days in orbit. No official explanation of why controllers kept the mission going past the original duration of 270 days other than 'because we could.' I, for one, welcome our long duration, unmanned orbital overlords."

2 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Possibly they wanted to observe the Chinese lau by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    On another note, I noticed that all the North American news agencies are calling the Chinese female, going into space, an "astronaut". Isn't the correct term "taikonaut"?

    No. "Taikonaut" is a term some western media outlet came up with to sound cool. The Chinese government themselves refer to them as "astronauts" in their own English press releases.

  2. Re:Small reusable manned craft by ModernGeek · · Score: 3, Informative

    Look up the X-37C

    --
    Sig: I stole this sig.