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US Air Force mystery space plane lands at the space center after its two year mission

It looks like a space shuttle and the 780-day mission has set a new endurance record for the reusable test vehicle.

|Oct 30, 2019, 09:05:44 IST

The Air Force’s mystery space plane is back on Earth, following a record-breaking two-year mission.

The X-37B landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Sunday. The Air Force is mum about what the plane did in orbit after launching aboard a SpaceX rocket in 2017. The 780-day mission sets a new endurance record for the reusable test vehicle.

It looks like a space shuttle but is one-fourth the size at 29 feet.[caption id="attachment_7571291" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

the Air Force’s X-37B successfully lands at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility. Image credit: NASA[/caption]Officials say this latest mission successfully completed its objectives. Experiments from the Air Force Research Laboratory were aboard.

This was the fifth spaceflight by a vehicle of this sort. No. 6 is planned next year with another launch from Cape Canaveral. The solar-powered plane is flown by remote control without a crew.

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