Boeing launched its second X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) for the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office on an Atlas 5 rocket into a low-Earth orbit from the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex in Florida, the company announced March 7.
    The X-37B unmanned space-based test platform objectives include: space experimentation, risk reduction and concept-of-operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies. The first OTV, launched in April 2010, orbited for about eight months before landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., where it continues to undergo post-flight evaluation.
    "History was made in December when the X-37B became the United States’ first unmanned vehicle to return from space and land on its own. The success of that mission validated this reusable and effective way to test new technologies in space and return them for examination," Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems Vice President and General Manager Craig Cooning said in a statement