The
Boeing X-37, also known as the
Orbital Test Vehicle (
OTV), is a reusable
robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a
launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a
spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the
United States Space Force for orbital
spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate
reusable space technologies. It is a 120-percent-scaled derivative of the earlier
Boeing X-40. The X-37 began as a
NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the
United States Department of Defense in 2004. Until 2019, the program was managed by
Air Force Space Command.
[1]
An X-37 first flew during a drop test in 2006; its first orbital mission was launched in April 2010 on an
Atlas V rocket, and returned to Earth in December 2010. Subsequent flights gradually extended the mission duration, reaching 780 days in orbit for the fifth mission, the first to launch on a
Falcon 9 rocket. The latest mission, the sixth, launched on an Atlas V on 17 May 2020 and concluded on 12 November 2022, reaching a total of 908 days in orbit.
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