Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-2) on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California...after returning home from space on June 16, 2012.
U.S. Air Force

The X-37B Returns Home... After spending 468 days in space following its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 5, 2011, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) safely returned to Earth last Saturday...concluding a presumably successful but clandestine mission for the U.S. Air Force. This is the second OTV (OTV-2) to fly into Earth orbit; the first so-called mini-shuttle, OTV-1, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in April of 2010 and successfully landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California that following December.

OTV-1 has been refurbished and will head back to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to embark on a second flight into space. It is scheduled to launch aboard another Atlas V rocket this October.

Five technicians wearing hazmat suits conduct a post-landing checkout on OTV-2 after its return home from space on June 16, 2012.
U.S. Air Force

OTV-2 is towed into a hangar at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, after returning home from space on June 16, 2012.
U.S. Air Force
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