An unmanned rocket rolled out to its seaside launch pad in Florida today carrying a secretive robotic X-37B space plane for the United States Air Force ahead of a planned Thursday launch.
The Air Force plans to launch the X-37B space plane on ademonstration flight that could last months. Liftoff is set for Thursday night between7:52 p.m. and 8:01 p.m. EDT (2352-0001 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Air ForceBase in Florida. [X-37Bspacecraft photos.]
The robotic X-37Bspace plane looks like a miniature space shuttle and even has a smallpayload like NASA's orbiters. It weighs about11,000 pounds and is just over 29 feet in length. It stands slightly more than9 1/2 feet in height and has a wingspan just over 14 feet across.
Air Force officials have kept the details of this X-37Bmission ? called the OrbitalTest Vehicle ? and the spacecraft's cost secret.
Gary Payton, the U.S. AirForce Deputy Under Secretary for Space Programs, told reporters Tuesdaythat the mission will test a new batch ofreusable technologies, including new silica heat shield tiles to protect thespace plane from atmospheric re-entry, as well as "other technologies thatare sort of one generation beyond the shuttle."
The X-37B was built byBoeing's Phantom Works division in Seal Beach, Calif. The Air Force has alreadyordered a second Orbital Test Vehicle, but whether it launches in 2011 as plannedhinges on the performance of the upcomingtest flight, Air Force officials said.
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