WASHINGTON: A mysterious US spaceship has landed on earth after 674-day secret mission, which began in December 2012.
The US Air Force officials said that the unmanned spaceship, dubbed as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The solar-powered spacecraft is smaller as compared with the space shuttle, which it resembles. The X-37B stands 2.9 metres tall and is about 9 metres long, having 4.5 metres wingspan.
Weighing only about 5 tons – hardly one-twentieth the weight of the space shuttle – it is launched like a rocket, and is designed to be reusable after returning to earth like the old shuttles, which have been retired. A fourth X-37B mission is said to be planned for launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2015.
