Space plane -37B of the US Air Force touched down on Earth this week without any details about what it was doing up in space in the first place. The military still has not given any information about the mission of almost two years.
The military called it "the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 3 or the OTV-3. It returned to the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California last Friday morning after conducting unknown experiments in outer space for 674 days.
Conspiracy theorists cannot keep themselves from speculating what the Pentagon could possibly be doing with what is perceived to be "the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft."
The X-37B's last mission was back in December 11 of 2012, as it lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. At that time, the Air Force only said that its mission would only last for approximately nine months, which is a far cry from its actual date of return, which was just a few days ago.
To date, the military has been speaking in general terms regarding the space plane and its actual mission.
A statement from the Air Force said, "Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing."
Many were quick to speculate that the space plane is actually a space bomber or a spy plane that has its crosshairs set on various targets, such as the Chinese space station. Others believe that it could just be an experiment as the Government states in not so many words.
When the space plane was launched in 2012, the Air Force mentioned that it might not be the last. The statement said, "Officials anticipate multiple missions will be required to satisfy the test program objectives, but the exact number of missions has not been determined."
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