A US plane on a top-secret, two-year mission to space has returned to Earth and landed in California.
The aircraft, resembling a miniature space shuttle and known as the Orbital Test Vehicle or X-37B, spent 674 days in orbit around the planet.
It touched down at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday morning.
The purpose of the plane remains unclear – a theory that it was taking a look at China’s space lab has recently been downplayed by experts.
Air Force officials have only told US media the aircraft performs “risk reduction, experimentation and concept-of-operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies”.
The aircraft, resembling a miniature space shuttle and known as the Orbital Test Vehicle or X-37B, spent 674 days in orbit around the planet.
It touched down at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday morning.
The purpose of the plane remains unclear – a theory that it was taking a look at China’s space lab has recently been downplayed by experts.
Air Force officials have only told US media the aircraft performs “risk reduction, experimentation and concept-of-operations development for reusable space vehicle teEurope is to test its own automated spaceplane technology in the coming weeks, reports BBC News science correspondent Jonathan Amos.
The IXV vehicle will be launched into space atop a rocket from French Guiana and then make its way back through the atmosphere to splash down in the ocean.
But the European programme would be a civilian one, so military secrecy would play no part, our correspondent adds.chnologies”.
From : BBC NEWS.
