It is the first flight of Boeing X-37B, a United States Air Force Orbital Test Vehicle, which is an unmanned 5000 kg, 8.8 m-long reusable mini-spaceplane capable of autonomous re-entry and landing. The OTV-1 mission was designed to test new technologies, however the specific identity of the spaceship's payload was not revealed. OTV was the first vehicle since NASA's shuttle orbiter capable of returning experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis. The mission concluded after 224 days in orbit, marking the first American autonomous orbital runway landing.
Atlas V with 5m Fairing, 0 SRB, 1 Centaur upper stage engine.
See DetailsFirst X-37B. First flight on April 22, 2010.
X-37B DetailsUnited Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. ULA launches from both coasts of the US. They launch their Atlas V vehicle from LC-41 in Cape Canaveral and LC-3E at Vandeberg. Their Delta IV launches from LC-37 at Cape Canaveral and LC-6 at Vandenberg.
INFO WIKIA batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
NS-38 is the 17th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 38th in the New Shepard program's history.
First 2 satellites of UK-based Open Cosmos' secure LEO broadband constellation designed to provide independent and resilient connectivity infrastruct…
A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…
A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Twelfth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office …
First test launch of Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 rocket.
Chinese experimental spacecraft of unknown purposes.
4 small satellites for LEO Internet of Things (IoT) communication purposes.