The U.S. Air Force's first unmanned re-entry spacecraft landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:16 a.m. today.
The X-37B, named Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1), conducted on-orbit experiments for more than 220 days during its maiden voyage. It fired its orbital maneuver engine in low-earth orbit to perform an autonomous reentry before landing.
It is small, so it really can't do much on its own. But after 7 months in space, the Air Force liked it enough to order another (I read that somewhere else but don't remember where). I kind of assume that the Air Force means it will buy another, bigger version.
I don't know what specific lessons the Air Force learned in 7 months of testing the craft, but I hope they learned to aim really high.
UPDATE: Strategypage has a good overview. The ship is quite stealthy. This is interesting, too, despite the very small payload (660 pounds) the ship can carry:
The X-37B is believed capable of serving as a platform for attacks on enemy satellites in wartime.
With a bay and mechanical arm, a maneuverable ship, I suppose, doesn't need much more than a pallet of bricks to knock out satellites. Just let go of one in the path of a satellite and the speed of impact will be quite damaging.
And apparently, the Air Force isn't buying a bigger copy of the X-37. It just wants another of the same.
