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Call it a reusable space vehicle. Call it a space plane. But whatever you do, just don’t call it a space weapon. That’s the message from the Air Force after last week’s launch of its X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which can stay on orbit up to 270 days. The Air Force won’t say what, exactly, the robotic space plane will be doing there, how long it will linger this time, or even how much it costs. But the military is already in the process of building a second aircraft, which will fly next year. Officially the Air Force has described...

A top secret space plane developed by the US military has blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden voyage. Billed as a small shuttle, the unmanned X-37B heralds the next generation of space exploration. It will be the first craft to carry out an autonomous re-entry in the history of the US programme. But its mission - and its cost - remain shrouded in secrecy. The Air Force said the launch was a success but would give no further details.

Atlas V X-37B OTV Cape launch set for April 22 Release Number: 040410 4/21/2010 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla -- The 45th Space Wing is set to launch an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle from Space Launch Complex 41 on April 22, 2010. The rocket will carry the Air Force's first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). The launch window for this mission is 7:51-8:02 p.m. The X-37B will provide a flexible space test platform to conduct various experiments and allow satellite sensors, subsystems, components and associated technology to be efficiently transported to and from the space environment...

"Secret US Air Force unmanned space plane set for launch ...The 4.9-ton spacecraft - which has a wingspan of 4.27 meters and is 8.84 meters long - will be testing the long-duration ability of reusable space vehicles to stay in space for up to 270 days at an altitude of 200-800 km from earth before making an automatic landing at the Vandenberg Air force Base in California. The duration and exact nature of the Orbital Test Vehicle's mission have not been disclosed by the US Air Force Capabilities Office which oversees the project. Some space experts are calling its launch...

The Air Force quietly prepares to launch the X-37B, an unmanned shuttle into space on April 22, just days after the Discovery shuttle returns to earth. Developed by the Air Force for nearly a decade, the X-37B's scheduled launch coincides with a wind down in shuttle operations by NASA. The Air Force has been practicing test landings with a prototype of the X-37B at an undisclosed location for years. The Air Force spacecraft's launch has been delayed several times, and was most recently postponed to accommodate Discovery's return. The X-37B will stay in orbit for up to nine months and...

Air Force officials are scheduled to launch the U.S.'s newest and most advanced unmanned re-entry spacecraft April 21 at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle will provide a flexible space test platform to conduct various experiments and allow satellite sensors, subsystems, components and associated technology to be efficiently transported to and from the space environment where it will need to function. The X-37B will also prove new technology and components before they are committed to operational satellites. The OTV is the first vehicle since NASA's shuttle orbiter that has the ability to return experiments to Earth...

After a decade of development, the Air Force this month plans to launch a robotic spacecraft resembling a small space shuttle to conduct technology tests in orbit and then glide home to a California runway. The ultimate purpose of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle and details about the craft, which has been passed between several government agencies, however, remain a mystery as it is prepared for launch April 19 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The quietly scheduled launch culminates the project's long and expensive journey from NASA to the Pentagon's research and development arm and then to a secretive Air Force...

The Air Force is proceeding with testing an unmanned space vehicle, part of a former NASA program that was cut as the space agency focused space exploration goals. The X-37B is designed to perform long-duration testing in low-Earth orbit of new technologies. The unmanned vehicle will carry experiments into space, then return with them to Earth. "The (orbital test vehicle) will provide the Air Force the ability to verify new technologies and components operate as expected in the space environment, as well as inspect these technologies or components back on the ground before they are integrated into highly expensive satellites...

I’m pretty sure Jared Lee Laughner was ranting about the X-37B in the flag burning video under YouTube channel Starhitshnoz. Jared: “There's a new bird on my right shoulder. The beak is two feet and lime green. The rarest bird on earth, there's no feathers, but small grey scales all over the body. It's with one large red eye with a light blue iris. The bird feet are the same as a woodpecker. This new bird and there's only one, the gender is not female or male. The wings of this bird are beautiful; 3 feet wide with the shape...

An unmanned military space plane has achieved a major longevity milestone, zipping around Earth for 500 days on a clandestine mission for the United States government. The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane launched on its third and latest mission on Dec. 11, 2012. As of today (April 24), the vehicle has been aloft for 500 days — far longer than its officially stated maximum orbital lifetime of 270 days. "Clearly, and understandably, the Air Force initially set the expected parameters [of the X-37B] conservatively, not really knowing what it could do until it was tested — which is what...

The robotic X-37B space plane, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, will land at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where Air Force officials are gearing up for its return. As of today (Oct. 12), the X-37B mini-shuttle has been in orbit since December 2012 and racked up a record-shattering 671 days in space. ... The Air Force has two X-37B space planes in its fleet and has been flying them on secret missions since 2010. But the exact purpose of those flights have been shrouded in secrecy. The mission in orbit now, called Orbital Test Vehicle 3...

A top Boeing official criticized Congress on Tuesday for failing to pass a long-term reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. He also argued that an extension of the Bank’s charter until next summer leaves supporters in a worse position than they were in before. “Mostly far-right political consultants, think tanks and congressmen banded together in a fit of ideological road rage to kill the bank,” Boeing senior vice president Timothy Keating said in prepared remarks at an aerospace conference in Everett, Wash. “The temporary extension recently enacted in many respects leaves us worse off than before,” Keating continued. “The extension is...

Boeing on Monday said it would move most of its defense services and support work out of Washington state to other U.S. cities, affecting the jobs of about 2,000 of its 5,200 defense employees in the Puget Sound region. The changes are part of ongoing efforts by Boeing to streamline its defense business, and will not affect its P-8A spy plane or KC-46 aerial refueling tanker programs. Both of those programs are based on commercial jetliners made in the area. The transition could take three years to complete. Boeing would shift as many affected workers as possible to the company's...

. September 18, 2014 Newt Gingrich : NASA Commercial Crew Plan Is Scant Progress ===================================================== It didn't take a rocket scientist to predict that NASA's plan to pay Russia to launch American astronauts into orbit wasn't going to turn out well. Three years after NASA retired the space shuttle program, relations between the United States and Russia are worse than at any point since the end of the Cold War. Americans have reportedly been paying Russia $70 million a seat to send our astronauts to the International Space Station. That's three and a half times what the Russians charge private...

Because we're not relying on air power for anything, right? Not that we really expect rational thinking from the Obama White House, but you’d think President Air Power Only would put a high premium on the procurement of fighter jets, yes? You’d think that, but according to one of the leading manufacturers of said fighter jets, you’d be wrong. Boeing tells Fox News it doesn’t expect to be making many fighter jets - perhaps not any - in the near future: The shift comes despite the Navy’s ongoing use of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to strike Islamic militants in Iraq...

Boeing Co. BA +0.48% , which has built military planes for almost a century, is preparing for the prospect of a fighter-less future. The steadfast commitment of the U.S. and many allies to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program made by Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT +0.60% is drying up funding for Boeing's fighters. Now, the head of Boeing's defense unit is preparing a road map that would concede the fighter market to Lockheed and pin the business's future on other aircraft, including military versions of its commercial jetliners. "You have to face reality," Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing, Defense, Space...

We’re returning human spaceflight launches to America. Learn who will take crews to the #ISS. Watch NASA TV at 4pm ET http://youtu.be/ceQycm1uCFI

NASA has awarded the highly-anticipated space taxi contract to Boeing and SpaceX, a move which will end the agency’s reliance on Russian technology to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station. The Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract aims to restore an American capability to launch astronauts from U.S. soil to the International Space Station by the end of 2017. Since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, American astronauts have been transported to space on Russian-built Soyuz vessels. …

NASA and Boeing finalize $2.8 million deal to build super powerful rocket by Brooks Hays Washington Jul 4, 2013 disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only Aviation company Boeing has contracted with NASA to build the world's most powerful rocket, intended -- eventually -- to propel astronauts to the moon, Mars, asteroids and the deep space beyond. Boeing and NASA signed a $2.8 million contract this week, tasking the aerospace company with developing two rocket cores as part of the completion of the Space Launch System, a heavy launch vehicle meant to carry both crew and cargo that will be...

Dueling bidders for a major Pentagon stealth bomber contract would be eligible for massive tax credits under a bill that's on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. Brown has been pushing for an aerospace tax credit that could help companies create thousands of jobs near Palmdale. In July, lawmakers grudgingly approved a $420 million tax credit that would benefit a joint bid being submitted by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. The governor signed the fast-tracked AB2389 into law after his office assured competitor Northrop Grumman Corp. that it would receive a similar deal.