Air Force Launches Unmanned Space Vehicle

The United States Air Force launched a small-scale space shuttle on Thursday aimed at testing the next-generation version of the craft, according to media reports.

Carried by an unmanned Atlas V rocket, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle departed Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at 7:52pm EDT on Thursday. The nearly 30-foot long craft is less than a quarter of the size of existing shuttle orbiters, but it is similar in design, according to Reuters reporter Irene Klotz.

It is the first autonomous take off and landing in American space travel history.

"The military is looking at the vehicle as a way to test new equipment, sensors and materials in space, with an eye to incorporating them into satellites and other operational systems," Klotz said in an April 23 article, adding that the X-37B should "cut the turnaround time between space flights from months to days" and can "spend as long as nine months in space, then land autonomously on a runway."


Little is known about the test mission, as the Air Force "has declined to discuss what the plane is carrying in its payload or what experiments are scheduled," according to the AFP. Furthermore, the length of the initial mission has not been revealed, though it is currently scheduled to land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

According to the UK Daily Mail website, "Experts have said the spacecraft was intended to speed up development of combat-support systems and weapons systems… There have already been accusations that the program could lead to the 'weaponization' of space."

"The idea of being able to launch an unmanned research platform that can stay up there for months on end provides you with all kinds of capability, both military and civilian," added Chris Hellman, a policy analyst with the National Priorities Project, in an April 20 interview with the Christian Science Monitor. "I can see where the prospect of having half a dozen of these things with unknown payloads circling overhead could be very troubling to people."

The possible military applications of the craft are currently limited to speculation. The military will only say that the X-37B will be conducting "classified experiments" while in orbit.

What is known, though, is that the X-37B will be powered by solar cells and lithium-ion batteries and that the military plans a second launch of the Boeing-manufactured vehicle next year.

The ongoing Orbital Test Vehicle project was initially launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the 1990s. However, it was later turned over to the Pentagon and then handed off to the Air Force.​