A prototype miniature space shuttle blasted off aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday for a demonstration run that could last as long as nine months.
The experimental vehicle, known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, lifted off at 5.46pm EST. It is the second ship to be put in space under the US military’s X-37B program.
The vehicles are smaller versions of NASA’s space shuttle orbiters – 29 feet (8.8m) long, 14 feet (4.3m) across. The one-third scale spaceships are solar powered, unlike the space shuttles, and are not designed to carry people.
Like OTV-1, which returned from a 224-day mission on Dec 3, what OTV-2 will do in orbit, as well as any cargo or experiments that are aboard are classified.
They are intended to test technologies and processes for low-cost, quick-turnaround, reusable space vehicles, as well as serve as orbital testbeds for instruments that could be incorporated into future satellites.
Once operational, the X-37B could be used for a variety of missions including reconnaissance, in-space service and repair of satellites, deploying and retrieving spacecraft, and demonstrating new technologies, the Air Force said.
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