The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in collaboration with United States Space Force, for orbital spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies. It is a 120-percent-scaled derivative of the earlier Boeing X-40. The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the United States Department of Defense in 2004. Until 2019, the program was managed by Air Force Space Command.
Boeing X-37
An artist's rendering of the X-37 spacecraft in 1999
The Scaled Composites White Knight was used to launch the X-37A on glide tests (2007).
X-37B 1 sits on the runway after landing at Vandenberg SFB at the end of its OTV-1 (USA-212) mission on 3 December 2010.
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft. All spaceplanes to date have been rocket-powered for takeoff and climb, but have then landed as unpowered gliders.
Space Shuttle Discovery
X-37B after landing.
Dream Chaser test vehicle.
Landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis, a crewed orbital spaceplane