X-37B ‘Space Plane’ Orbital Test Vehicle Landing

While the concept of space might be abstract, the way that we are exploring the great beyond is very concrete. After spending millions upon millions of dollars in research and development if not more, a great variety of different instruments have been developed to explore what’s out there and this time, we check out one of those vehicles as it comes in for landing.

As described by the AIRBOYD YouTube Channel, “The Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 4 landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility May 7, 2017. Managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the X-37B program is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft that performs risk reduction, experimentation, and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.”

Not only is this craft able to head out into space and retrieve information, but it also can come back down to Earth and touch down once again to bring it all back in one piece, delivering not only that pertinent info but also itself to be reused once again for more missions in the future.