Did you know the US has a Mini-Shuttle? Now you do. The Orbital Test Vehicle, also known as the X-37B, touched down recently at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, becoming the first U.S. vehicle to make an autonomous runway landing from space.
The military won't say what the X-37B was doing during its seven-plus months in space, but officials intend to launch a second X-37B vehicle in 2011. The vehicle expected to fly in the spring is a second spacecraft, but the idea is to cut down the time needed for servicing the space planes from months to days -- and at a fraction of the cost NASA pays to get its shuttles ready for flight.
Read more here:
http://news.discovery.com/space/secret-mini-shuttle-lands-in-california.html
