[Little Pig]

It’s reusable. It can re-enter the atmosphere and land like the shuttle did. It’s existence isn’t a secret, but what it’s been doing is. It spends months and months in orbit.

[morphing libertarian]

by 2050 space planes will be available to private parties. 1 hour NY to LA 4:35 around the world. No local domestic flights under 2700 miles.

[freebird5850]

gotcha.

[PIF]

It’s existence isn’t a secret, but what it’s been doing is. It spends months and months in orbit

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It takes a while for various Culture GSVs to make their rounds of this part of the Galaxy as scheduling is tight, but displacing the X37B’s cargo and displacing the exchange cargo from the GSV is nearly instantaneous ... the GSVs barely have to slow to 120 lights and don’t even have to enter the system - just stand off a light year or two beyond the Ort Cloud and make the exchange.

Most Culture General Service Vehicles are about 100km by 50km with several million passengers.

What;s secret is who the X37B is dealing with and what the exchange cargo is. Could be Special Circumstances but that’s just a guess. As fro the cargo ... its anyone’s guess