On April 22, 2010, the United States Air Force launched the top-secret X-37B space plane on its first space flight.
Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, this spacecraft is very similar to NASA’s Space Shuttle. The plane is much smaller than the shuttle and has no windows.
But the X-37B doesn’t need windows anyway; Because no passengers fly in it. This aircraft is completely autonomous and can even land on the runway without a pilot.
In its first mission, the aircraft carried several classified cargoes on its long-duration flight. The X-37B was launched from Cape Canaveral on its first flight with an Atlas-5 rocket and orbited the Earth for 224 days.
Many of the X-37B payloads are classified, so the Space Force doesn’t release details about their activities, and we don’t even know when the missions will end. For this reason, the Air Force never revealed what kind of tests were being conducted at the time.
According to the total missions announced by NASA and the United States Air Force, the spacecraft has operated for more than 2,400 days in the Earth’s orbit.
