US space plane completes two-year secret mission

Washington May 8 (IANS) The US Air Force s X-37B space plane returned to Earth on Sunday after completing a secret space mission that lasted nearly two years.

The reusable unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA s Kennedy Space Center in Florida an airport used by the US space agency s Space Shuttle for landing until the programme s end in 2011.

The just-ended mission known as Orbital Test Vehicle mission 4 (OTV-4) was launched in May 2015 and conducted secret experiments for a total of 718 days while in orbit Xinhua news agency reported.

It s the fourth and longest-running mission for the X-37B programme run by the US Air Force s Rapid Capabilities Office. The programme began as a NASA project in 1999 but was later transferred to the Pentagon.

The landing of OTV-4 marks another success for the X-37B programme and the nation Lt. Col. Ron Fehlen X-37B programme manager was quoted as saying.

--IANS
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