Boeing-Built Secretive Spaceplane Makes Record As It Lands After 908 Days In Orbit

The Space Force's mysterious X-37B spaceplane built by Boeing BA has returned to Earth after making an unparalleled record of 908 days in orbit. 

What Happened: On Saturday, the high-achiever X-37B landed at NASA's Kennedy Center in Florida at 5:22 AM ET, marking its sixth successful mission, reported The Verge. 

While details regarding the exact purpose of the space plane is scarce, it did deploy FalconSat-8 developed by the US Air Force Academy in October 2021. This FalconSat-8 carried five experimental payloads and is currently still in orbit. 

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The space plane also hosted the Naval Research Laboratory's photovoltaic radiofrequency antenna module. It aims to convert solar rays into microwave energy and transmit power to the ground.  

X-37B’s maiden voyage was in 2010, but since then there has been little information about its mission. Before this, the space plane carried a few satellites into space and returned after 780 days in 2019, the report noted. 

"With the service module added, this was the most we've ever carried to orbit on the X-37B, and we're proud to have been able to prove out this new and flexible capability for the government and its industry partners," Jim Chilton, the senior vice president of Boeing Space and Launch said.

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