CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) \u2014 An uncrewed U.S. military space plane landed Saturday after spending a record 908 days in orbit for its sixth mission and conducting science experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The solar-powered vehicle, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, landed at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center. Its previous mission lasted 780 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSince the X-37B\u2019s first launch in 2010, it has shattered records and provided our nation with an unrivaled capability to rapidly test and integrate new space technologies,\u201d said Jim Chilton, a senior vice president for Boeing, its developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first time, the space plane hosted a service module that carried experiments for the Naval Research Laboratory, U.S. Air Force Academy and others. The module separated from the vehicle before de-orbiting to ensure a safe landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the experiments was a satellite dubbed the FalconSat-8 that was designed and built by academy cadets in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory. It was deployed in October 2021 and still remains in orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another experiment evaluated the effects of long-duration space exposure on seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis mission highlights the Space Force\u2019s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force,\u201d said Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The X-37B has now flown over 1.3 billion miles and spent a total of 3,774 days in space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Boeing-made X-37B has now flown over 1.3 billion miles and spent a total of 3,774 days in space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":112056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,29,32,56,37,21,111],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1328],"class_list":["post-31663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battlefield-tech","category-home","category-newsletters","category-robotics","category-space","category-unmanned","category-unmanned-systems"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5K2J2F2QERAFRB4HPEGUJJ5FFE","arc_canonical_url":"\/unmanned\/2022\/11\/13\/uncrewed-solar-powered-us-space-plane-back-after-908-days-in-orbit\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n