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Unmanned US Air Force Space Plane Lands After Secret, Two-Year Mission (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the take-note dept.

Irene Klotz, reporting for Reuters: The U.S. military's experimental X-37B space plane landed on Sunday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing a classified mission that lasted nearly two years, the Air Force said. The unmanned X-37B, which resembles a miniature space shuttle, touched down at 7:47 a.m. EDT (1147 GMT) on a runway formerly used for landings of the now-mothballed space shuttles, the Air Force said in an email. The Boeing-built space plane blasted off in May 2015 from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas 5 rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The X-37B, one of two in the Air Force fleet, conducted unspecified experiments for more than 700 days while in orbit. It was the fourth and lengthiest mission so far for the secretive program, managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.

14 comments

  1. In space ... by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    ... nobody can hear you go "Pew, pew, pew."

    Also, it isn't secret. I've heard about it twice recently.
    -- Have gnu, will travel.

  2. Dup by xmas2003 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Isn't this a dup that was just posted/discussed here?

    --
    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
  3. Duplicate detected by Dog-Cow · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Yo, Slashdot, your "editor" script is broken again. The original is still on the front page.

  4. Dupe Lands After Secret, One-Day Intermission by ToTheStars · · Score: 0

    Psst, msmash, maybe talk to EditorDavid now and then? ;)

    https://science.slashdot.org/s...

  5. Read this yesterday... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Would be nice if the weekday editors would check with the weekend editors to find out if a topic was previously published over the weekend. Oh, let see, like yesterday?

  6. It seem to have caused a space time loop by future+assassin · · Score: 0

    when it landed. Anyone feel like this story is a repeat of yesterday,?

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re:It seem to have caused a space time loop by EvilSS · · Score: 0

      When they fly in from orbit they cause a double sonic boom and double posting of articles.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  7. Shortest time to suplicate EVAR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not just a duplicate, but a duplicate only 9 spots below. That has to be a record.

  8. Important stealth technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Stealth so good it avoids the Dupe Tracker.

  9. So there were TWO of them? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 0

    So there were TWO of them then?
    https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/05/07/2136253/after-almost-two-years-the-air-forces-mysterious-x-37b-space-plane-lands

    I can't wait until AI takes over the job of "SlashDot Editor"...

  10. First Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump 2020!

  11. Re:It's not an AI test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So edgy.

  12. Hey, dipshits, why reply when this will be deleted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    these dup posts are deleted so you idiots that waste time posting are, well, stupid.