The mysterious X-37B spaceplane of the United States Space Force has returned to Earth after a record-breaking two and a half years (908 days) in orbit.
It touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:22 a.m. ET on Saturday, November 12th, marking its sixth successful mission.
While the agency is mum on what the Boeing-built spaceplane does, it did reveal that it will deploy the FalconSat-8 developed by the US Air Force Academy in October 2021.
This small satellite, which carried five experimental payloads, remains in orbit today. It also housed a photovoltaic radiofrequency antenna module from the Naval Research Laboratory, which is designed to convert solar rays into microwave energy and “transmit power to the ground.”
The spaceplane, which resembles a smaller version of NASA’s Space Shuttle, first flew in 2010, and little is known about its mission since then.
The X-37B previously carried a small number of satellites into space before returning in 2019 after 780 days.
Another NASA experiment on board this time was one that tested space exposure on seeds in order to “inform space crop production for future interplanetary missions and the establishment of permanently inhabited bases in space.”
Another experiment examined the effect of space radiation on various materials, which NASA will compare to materials on Earth.
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“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, the senior vice president of Boeing Space and Launch said in a statement.
“With the service module added, this was the most we’ve ever carried to orbit on the X-37B and we’re proud to have been able to prove out this new and flexible capability for the government and its industry partners.”
