X-37B Lands After 675 Days in Space – UPDATE

UPDATE:  A link has been added to A video of the landing released by the Air Force on October 22, and with an even more accurate mission duration calculation by Jonathan McDowell that it lasted 674.93 days, which we round to 675 days rather than the Air Force’s 674 days.

The Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA today (October 17) at 9:24 am PDT (12:24 pm EDT).  This is the third and longest flight to date.

The X-37B looks like a very small space shuttle.  There are at least two of them, OTV-1 and OTV-2.  Both are reusable and this is the second flight of OTV-1.  It spent 224 days in orbit in 2010.  OTV-2 was in space for 469 days from March 2011-June 2012.   What the OTVs do during those lengthy missions is completely classified, leading to much conjecture, but no hard facts in the public domain.

The Air Force announced a week ago today that the landing would take place soon.  Initially, it appeared as though Tuesday would be the landing date, but for reasons that have not been announced, it took place today instead. 

The Air Force 30th Space Wing issued the following press statement, which includes the news that the next X-37B flight will launch in 2015:

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. –  The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission
3 (OTV-3), the Air Force’s unmanned, reusable space plane, landed at
Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:24 a.m. Oct. 17 .

 “The 30th Space Wing and our mission partners, Air Force Rapid Capabilities
Office, Boeing, and our base support contractors, have put countless hours
of hard work into preparing for this landing and today we were able to see
the culmination of that dedication,” said Col Keith Balts, 30th Space Wing
commander.

 “I’m extremely proud of our team for coming together to execute this third
safe and successful landing.  Everyone from our on console space operators
to our airfield managers and civil engineers take pride in this unique
mission and exemplify excellence during its execution.”
The OTV-3 conducted on-orbit experiments for 674 days during its mission,
extending the total number of days spent on-orbit for the OTV program to
1367 days.

 “The landing of OTV-3 marks a  hallmark event for the program” said the
X-37B program manager.

 “The mission is our longest to date and we’re pleased with the incremental
progress we’ve seen in our testing of the reusable space plane. The
dedication and hard work by the entire team has made us extremely proud.”
The X-37B is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft.  Managed by
the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the X-37B program performs risk
reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for
reusable space vehicle technologies.

The Air Force is preparing to launch the fourth X-37B mission from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in 2015.

Later in the day, the Air Force 30th Space Wing posted photos of the landing on its Facebook page, including this one:

X-37 Orbital Test Mission 3 (OTV-3) lands at Vandenberg AFB, CA, Oct. 17, 2014.  Photo Credit: Boeing

The Air Force released a video of the landing on YouTube on October 22.

Although the Air Force said it was a 674-day mission, Jonathan McDowell, author of Jonathan’s Space Report, tweeted (@planet4589) that the mission duration was 674.9 days based on his calculations.  SpacePolicyOnline.com asked the Air Force for clarification, but none was offered.  McDowell rechecked his calculation and produced an even more accurate duration of 674.93 days, so we will continue to use 675 days.

Note:  This article was updated on October 17 with the Air Force press statement and landing photo, and on October 22 with the link to the video and McDowell’s more precise mission duration calculation..