![]() ![]() Since the first flight in 2010, the secretive space planes had logged a combined 2,865 days in orbit as of Sunday. "You could say that the X-37B stands on the shoulders of the space shuttle," Chilton said. Their home base is a former space shuttle hangar at Kennedy. ![]() The Air Force has two of these reusable space planes. Naval Research Laboratory, making it the biggest science load yet for an X-37B. The one just launched features an extra compartment for experiments, including several for NASA and the U.S. The winged spacecraft resembles NASA's old shuttles, but is just one-quarter the size at 29 feet (9 meters) long. The previous mission lasted a record two years, with a touchdown shrouded in darkness at NASA's Kennedy Space Center last year. But a senior vice president for X-37B developer Boeing, Jim Chilton, noted each mission has been progressively longer. Officials aren't saying how long the spacecraft will remain in orbit this time or the purpose of the mission. It's the sixth flight of an X-37B, a solar-powered plane that's flown by remote control without a crew.
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