The small mini-shuttle used by the US Air Force know as the X-37B/OTV 2 (Flight 1) successfully completed its mission as it re-entered and landed at the Vandenberg Air Force base in California at 1248 GMT on 16 June. The mission ends the speculation that the craft might have been used to mount a spying mission on Chinese manned operations including the recent docking of the Tiangong 1. in addition to its other reconnaissance duties.
on June 18, 2012 6:13 PM | Reply
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on June 19, 2012 9:58 AM | Reply
This must count as the longest flight ever recorded?
Your readers can see the landing on this YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuWZ9bpYDVg
I am sure there were a number of relieved engineers, that the tyres stayed inflated after such a long mission....
on June 20, 2012 9:52 AM | Reply
At 469 days, it is certainly the longest flying mission to date of a winged reusable vehicle (atmospheric or in space). It may also be the longest 'returnable' space mission. So far as we can tell military reconnaissance missions with returnable capsules have yet not beaten this mission duration.