The X-37B: The Secretive Spaceplane That Spent A Combined 10 Years In Orbit – SlashGear

While the X-37 started as a NASA program in 1999, it didn’t stay that way for very long. In 2004, the program was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) so it could field the “Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV) and an Orbital Vehicle,” according to Space.com. The former was finished in 2006, and while the activities surrounding the X-37 became classified. The U.S. Air Force then developed the X-37B, a similar spaceplane to DARPA’s X-37A with some unspecificied design changes. 

“Since the X-37B’s first launch in 2010, it has shattered records and provided our nation with an unrivaled capability to rapidly test and integrate new space technologies,” Jim Chilton, senior vice president at Boeing Space and Launch, said in a press release.

In 2019, the U.S. Space Force has assumed responsibility for launching, operating, and landing the X-37B, though it’s still an Air Force asset.

Two X-37B spaceplanes have completed 6 missions of progressively longer durations, with the most recent remaining in orbit for 908 days before landing in November of 2022. According to Live Science, these missions have clocked about 10 years’ worth of time in orbit and traveled about 1.3 billion miles. While some onboard scientific experiments have been revealed, most of the X-37B’s activities remain a mystery. But there’s no doubt about one thing: this spaceplane is already using tomorrow’s technologies.