Photo credit: The Sun
Not much is known about the Boeing X-37B spaceplane other than it goes on secretive missions quite frequently, and it just returned from one earlier today, startling some Florida residents. How so? A loud sonic boom was reported to be heard between 5-6 am from the Tampa Bay area over through Orlando.
This 30-foot spaceplane’s latest mission had it spending 908-days in low Earth orbit, shattering the previous 780-day record. The Department of Defense is mum on its objectives, but says some of its secondary duties included hosting military research payloads, science experiments, and NASA investigations. Unlike most spacecraft, the X-37 is capable of stealthily changing its position in orbit.
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[It has several experiments] to test out different systems in space. Some of those experiments include a small satellite called FalconSat-8, two NASA payloads designed to study the effects of radiation on different materials as well as seeds to grow food,” according to The Sun.
