Kennedy Space Center Home To Secret Spacecraft
CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) — The Kennedy Space Center is going to be the testing site for a top-secret Air Force space plane.
Boeing — the contractor working on the spacecraft — announced Friday that it will be converting a former space shuttle building for the X-37B orbital test vehicle program.
An undisclosed number of workers will recover, refurbish and relaunch the 29-foot-long unmanned spacecraft.
The Air Force launched the most recent flight of the unmanned spacecraft from Florida's Space Coast more than a year ago.
It was the second flight for the original X-37B spaceplane. The craft circled the planet for seven months in 2010. A second X-37B spacecraft spent more than a year in orbit.
The mystery machines are about one-quarter the size of NASA's old space shuttles and can land automatically on a runway.
© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
