USA-240, also referred to as Orbital Test Vehicle 3 (OTV-3), is the second flight of the first Boeing

X-37B 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 United State ...

, an American unmanned robotic vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing spaceplane. It was launched to low Earth orbit aboard an Atlas V rocket from

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

on 11 December 2012. Its mission designation is part of the USA series. The spaceplane was operated by Air Force Space Command, which has not revealed the specific objectives of the mission or identity of the mission's

payload Payload is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of ...

. The Air Force stated only that the "mission will incorporate the lessons learned during the refurbishment process on OTV-1. As the X-37B program is examining the affordability and reusability of space vehicles, validation through testing is vital to the process. We are excited to see how this vehicle performs on a second flight."

Mission

OTV-3, the second mission for the first X-37B, and the third X-37B mission overall, was originally scheduled to be launched on 25 October 2012, but was postponed because of an engine issue with the Atlas V launch vehicle. The X-37B was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on 11 December 2012. In March 2014, OTV-3 broke the X-37B program's endurance record by passing 470 days in space. The vehicle landed at Vandenberg AFB on 17 October 2014 at 16:24 UTC, having spent just short of 675 days in orbit.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2012 Satellites of the United States Air Force USA satellites Spacecraft launched in 2012 DARPA Spacecraft which reentered in 2014 Boeing X-37

Mission

See also

References