{"id":9725539,"date":"2026-08-05T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=9725539"},"modified":"2026-09-04T08:57:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:57:46","slug":"x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\/","title":{"rendered":"The Space Force&#8217;s Mystery Spaceplane"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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It looks like a Space Shuttle that shrank in the wash. It launches on a rocket, disappears into orbit for a year or two or three, and then glides home to a runway on autopilot.<\/p>\r\n<p>It is called the X-37B, and it is the closest thing we have to the winged military spaceplane the Cold War kept trying, and failing, to build. Except this one is real, it flies, and it is very, very quiet about its business.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;border-radius:8px;margin:24px 0\">\r\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:18px\">Quick Facts<\/p>\r\n<ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px;line-height:1.8\">\r\n<li><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV)<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Operator:<\/strong> U.S. Space Force &mdash; uncrewed, autonomous and reusable<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Size:<\/strong> about 29 feet (8.8 m) long, roughly a quarter the length of the Space Shuttle<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Launch and landing:<\/strong> rides a rocket up (Atlas V, Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy), glides to a runway landing<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Fleet:<\/strong> two vehicles; first flight in 2010<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Endurance:<\/strong> more than 4,200 days in orbit across its flights; a single mission once lasted nearly 909 days<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Latest mission:<\/strong> OTV-8, launched August 2025, testing laser communications and a quantum navigation sensor<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Missions:<\/strong> largely classified<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Space Force&rsquo;s pet mystery<\/h2>\r\n<p>The X-37B is built by Boeing and operated by the U.S. Space Force. There are two of them, and between them they have racked up more than 4,200 days in orbit since the first flight in 2010. Each is about 29 feet long &mdash; roughly a quarter the length of the old Space Shuttle &mdash; with a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. There is no crew. It flies itself, all the way from orbit to the moment its wheels touch the runway.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u_14MgTCBR4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;text-align:center\">A SpaceX rocket launches the X-37B, which later glides back to a pinpoint autonomous runway landing.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Years in orbit, lips sealed<\/h2>\r\n<p>What makes the X-37B genuinely strange is how long it stays up. Its sixth mission lasted nearly 909 days &mdash; almost two and a half years in orbit before it came home. Across all its flights, the little spaceplane has spent well over a decade&rsquo;s worth of days circling the Earth.<\/p>\r\n<p>Officially, it tests reusable spacecraft technologies and carries experiments for the government. Unofficially, its knack for changing its orbit and vanishing from where trackers expect it has made it a favourite Cold-War-style headache for America&rsquo;s rivals &mdash; a point a former Air Force secretary once made with unusual candour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/x-37b-payload-fairing.jpg\" alt=\"The Boeing X-37B being encapsulated inside its launch fairing\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The X-37B being encapsulated inside its rocket fairing before launch. There is no crew &mdash; it flies entirely on its own. Photo: U.S. Space Force \/ Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;It can do an orbit that looks like an egg, and when it&rsquo;s close to the Earth it&rsquo;s close enough to the atmosphere to turn where it is. Our adversaries don&rsquo;t know where it&rsquo;s going to come up next, and that drives them nuts. And I&rsquo;m really glad about that.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Heather Wilson<\/strong> &mdash; former U.S. Secretary of the Air Force (Aspen Security Forum, 2019)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5AxEQ_w6sJc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;text-align:center\">The X-37B returns from one of its record-length orbital missions.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">So what is it actually doing up there?<\/h2>\r\n<p>The honest answer is that most of it is classified &mdash; which is exactly why the X-37B attracts so much breathless speculation. It has been accused of being a spy platform, a satellite inspector, even a space bomber, a claim the Pentagon flatly rejects. What the Space Force will confirm is more prosaic and, arguably, more interesting: it is a flying test bench.<\/p>\r\n<p>Its seventh mission practised &ldquo;aerobraking&rdquo; &mdash; skimming the top of the atmosphere to change orbit while sipping fuel. Its eighth, launched in August 2025, is testing high-speed laser communications and the highest-performing quantum navigation sensor ever flown in space &mdash; a way to navigate without GPS.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;OTV-8&rsquo;s laser communications demonstration will mark an important step in the U.S. Space Force&rsquo;s ability to leverage commercial space networks as part of proliferated, diversified, and redundant space architectures.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Gen. Chance Saltzman<\/strong> &mdash; U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/x-37b-vandenberg-landing.jpg\" alt=\"The X-37B on the runway after an autonomous landing\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The X-37B after gliding home to an autonomous runway landing &mdash; the reusable winged spaceplane the Cold War dreamed of. Photo: U.S. Air Force<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Dyna-Soar dream, finally flying<\/h2>\r\n<p>Strip away the secrecy and the X-37B is the answer to a question first asked more than sixty years ago. The Air Force tried to build a reusable, winged military spaceplane in the 1960s and cancelled it: that was the X-20 Dyna-Soar. It tried again with a crewed spy station and cancelled that too: the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. The Soviets chased the same idea with their little folding-wing Spiral.<\/p>\r\n<p>All of them failed. The X-37B is what those programmes were reaching for &mdash; a small, reusable spaceplane that launches on a rocket, manoeuvres in orbit, lingers for months on end, and glides home to fly again. It just took half a century, and a robot instead of a pilot, to finally make it work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wnfddhDuWDE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;text-align:center\">A Falcon Heavy launches the X-37B on one of its secretive orbital missions.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"font-style:italic;color:#555;margin-top:20px\">Sources: U.S. Space Force; Boeing; NASA; Spaceflight Now; The War Zone; Aspen Security Forum (2019).<\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\">\r\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/x-20-dyna-soar-spaceplane-cancelled-1963\/\">The Space Bomber That Never Flew: X-20 Dyna-Soar<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/manned-orbiting-laboratory-mol-spy-station\/\">The Secret Space Station With Secret Astronauts<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/mig-105-spiral-epos-soviet-spaceplane\/\">The Soviet Spaceplane They Called the Wooden Shoe<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story Somewhere above your head, right now, there is a small robotic spaceplane that the United States has been flying for more than fifteen years &mdash; and the government will not tell you what it does. It looks like a Space Shuttle that shrank in the wash. It launches on a rocket, disappears [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9725297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9725539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>X-37B: The Space Force&#039;s Mystery Spaceplane<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The X-37B is a robotic Space Force spaceplane that flies secret missions for years at a time. 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What the mini-shuttle is, and what it is really doing up there.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-05T17:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-04T06:57:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/x-37b-otv5-landed.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joseph Duncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joseph Duncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joseph Duncan\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b969321b26faa21775f0c40e141cdf85\"},\"headline\":\"The Space Force&#8217;s Mystery Spaceplane\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-05T17:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-04T06:57:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":928,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/x-37b-otv5-landed.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"History &amp; Legends\",\"Military Aviation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/\",\"name\":\"X-37B: The Space Force&#39;s Mystery Spaceplane\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/it\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/afterburner\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/x-37b-otv5-landed.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-05T17:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-04T06:57:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"The X-37B is a robotic Space Force spaceplane that flies secret missions for years at a time. 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