X-37B Launched: All About US Military's Secretive Spaceplane
NDTV
The X-37B has been built by Boeing and is roughly the size of a small bus.
The Falcon Heavy rocket of SpaceX, the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, on Thursday launched a US military plane that has generated a lot of interest among the space community in recent years. The X-37B has gone to space without any crew and will carry out cutting-edge research, according to CNN. It is not known exactly where the spaceplane is going. The secretive plane has already spent 3,774 days in orbit across six prior missions, with the last one lasting a record 908 days.
The plane has always been under a veil of secrecy. With Thursday's launch, the X-37B has been to the space for seven times.
The spaceplane resembles a miniature NASA space shuttle with the windows blacked out. The X-37B has been known to carry out research on concepts such as relaying solar energy from space for use back on Earth and studying the effects of radiation on seeds used to grow food, according to CNN.
