14 DAY TRIAL // The third space plane ever launched by the United States Air Force (USAF) is currently nearing a major milestone in its mission. The spacecraft will soon reach one year of continuous operations in low-Earth orbit. This will occur exactly one week from now, on December 11, 2013.
This vehicle is called the Orbital Test Vehicle 3 (OTV-3), and is the third spacecraft built under the X-37B program. It launched to space aboard an Atlas V heavy-lift delivery system from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), near the NASA Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.
OTV 3 is the same spacecraft that flew on the first X-37B mission, back in 2011. At that time, the space plane could only spend 225 days in orbit before returning to Earth, at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California. Even so, it set new records for the amount of time it spent in space.
The second test vehicle managed to stay in orbit for more than 469 days, shattering all previous records. It could be that the USAF plans to push the current mission even longer. As for the purpose and capabilities of the X-37B spacecraft, the Air Force is keeping mum, and has been doing so for years, Space reports.