The U.S. Army’s X-37B spacecraft’s record-breaking sixth mission has finally ended. It landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida after spending a remarkable 908 days in orbit, more than four months longer than any previous X-37B flight. The Boeing-built spacecraft also carried a service module, a first for the U.S. Space Force’s X-37B program. The U.S. Space Force is believed to have two X-37B vehicles, both supplied by Boeing. To date, the duo has flown six orbital missions, each of which is known by the acronym OTV (“Orbital Test Vehicle”): OTV-1: launched on April 22, 2010 and landed on December 3, 2010 (duration 224 days), OTV-2: from March 5, 2011 to June 16, 2012 (468 days), OTV-3: from December 11, 2012 to October 17, 2014 (674 days), OTV-4: from May 20, 2015 to May 7, 2015 (718 days), OTV-5: from September 7, 2017 to October 27, 2019 (780 days), OTV-6: from May 17, 2020 to November 12, 2022 (908 days).
