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After Almost Two Years, The Air Force's Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Lands (space.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Space.com:
The record-shattering mission of the U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane is finally over. After circling Earth for an unprecedented 718 days, the X-37B touched down Sunday at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida -- the first landing at the SLF since the final space shuttle mission came back to Earth in July 2011... The just-ended mission, known as OTV-4 (Orbital Test Vehicle-4), was the fourth for the X-37B program... The 29-foot-long (8.8 meters) X-37B looks like NASA's now-retired space shuttle orbiter, only much smaller; indeed, two X-37Bs could fit inside a space shuttle's cavernous payload bay...
Most of the X-37B's payloads and activities are classified, leading to some speculation that the space plane could be a weapon of some sort, perhaps a disabler of enemy satellites... But Air Force officials have always strongly refuted that notion, stressing that the vehicle is simply testing technologies on orbit. "Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control; thermal-protection systems; avionics; high-temperature structures and seals; conformal, reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems; and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing," Captain AnnMarie Annicelli, an Air Force spokeswoman, told Space.com via email in March.
Most of the X-37B's payloads and activities are classified, leading to some speculation that the space plane could be a weapon of some sort, perhaps a disabler of enemy satellites... But Air Force officials have always strongly refuted that notion, stressing that the vehicle is simply testing technologies on orbit. "Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control; thermal-protection systems; avionics; high-temperature structures and seals; conformal, reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems; and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing," Captain AnnMarie Annicelli, an Air Force spokeswoman, told Space.com via email in March.
Have gnu, will travel.
-- why is it so secret, then?
The Air Force is just protecting their IP . . . they are worried that Über will hire away one of the Air Force's colonels with stolen design materials, and offer a competing Secret Space Plane Service, that can be hailed with an App!
Actually, the really secret news, is that, although the Secret Space plane took off unmanned, . . . it landed with three passengers!
The "guests" will be working on the Air Force's super secret Götterdämmerung project, which is being developed at the follow-on virtual site to Area 51. The virtual site is not in one place, but uses advanced distributed technology, based on Git, Blockchain and BitTorrent in an Internet of Things. If one node of the virtual site gets destroyed by Russian Hackers, the other nodes can recreate the work of node.
The Air Force stated that the purpose Götterdämmerung is "no what you think it is", and that they also have no idea what you think.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Actually it was launched to temporarily replace two of the mind control satellites, which had been put out of action by collisions with space debris. The new replacements were launched from the government's secret facility in Dwaynesville, PA. Unfortunately there was a brief interruption of service in late 2016, around November 8, but there don't seem to have been any major consequences.
"Nawww, the spaceplane isn't a weapon
In unrelated news, police and firefighters were called to the scene of a house bursting with popcorn early this morning. Homeowner Jerry Hathaway was unavailable for comment.