US Air Force Mini Shuttle Begins New Secret Mission And That's All We Know About

By Kamal Nayan - 20 May '15 13:25PM

An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for a secret mission. The space plane is capable of remaining in space for almost two years.

Reportedly, the flight will test a system that makes satellites easy to maneuver.

The mission is fourth of its kind. The other three previous mission also began with rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The secret test vehicle is essentially a test bed, designed to orbit the Earth and then land like any other NASA's shuttles.

The flight is built by Boeing and 206-foot (63-meter) tall.

"One test is worth 1,000 expert opinions," Planetary Society Chief Executive Bill Nye said in an interview during ULA's launch webcast.

Reuters reported that after X-37B is released into orbit, its upper-stage engine also will deploy 10 tiny satellites, called CubeSats. One spacecraft is a crowd-funded technology effort called LightSail to develop a propulsion system that uses the pressure of photons from the sun, a technique known as solar sailing, rather than chemical propellants.

"The program expects to have the capability to land in Florida in mid- to late 2016," said Air Force spokesman Chris Hoyler.