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News > World News > US Air Force launches X-37B space plane on secret mission

US Air Force launches X-37B space plane on secret mission

Updated: 06 Mar 2011

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Read more on US Air Force X-37B space plane United Launch Alliance

THE US Air Force on Saturday successfully launched its second unmanned Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-2) - also known as the X-37B - aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In a liftoff overseen by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), the pilotless, Boeing-built small space plane took off at 5:46pm ET for a secretive mission, after bad weather delayed Friday's scheduled launch.

The spacecraft will perform classified experiments for the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office and is being funded through the Pentagon's top-secret budget, according to the Los Angeles Times, fueling speculation about what the flight's overall mission might be.

"It's a classified mission," Major Tracy A. Bunko, an Air Force spokeswoman, told the paper ahead of the launch.

The spacecraft will be carrying "reusable technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments, which can then be returned to and examined on Earth."

Similarly, the ULA said in a cryptic statement released after liftoff that the OTV-2 "supports space experimentation, risk reduction, and concept of operations development for long duration and reusable space vehicle technologies."

Once its mission is complete, 8.8-metre long, 2.4-metre-wide craft will land at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, marking the third automated runway landing for a space plane - the first was achieved by the former Soviet Union's Buran space shuttle, and the second was completed by the OTV-2's sister vehicle, the OTV-1, which was launched in April 2010 and landed later that year.

A timeline for the mission has not yet been announced, but the OTV-2 can stay in orbit for up to 270 days.

"The ULA team is proud to have played a critical role in successfully launching both of these important missions of the Orbital Test Vehicle for the Air Force RCO," Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president of mission operations, said in a statement.

"It took a tremendous amount of teamwork to successfully launch both vehicles in less than a year.

"I am confident that the information collected by the Rapid Capabilities Office from these missions will lead to even bigger and bolder missions in the future.

"Congratulations to the combined Air Force and ULA launch team and our many mission partners that made today's successful launch possible."

SOURCE: couriermail.co.au

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