Is it a miniature space shuttle—a satellite—or an unmanned plane? Answer—yes. Whatever it is, it’s classified by the U.S. Air force. It was built by Boeing in Huntington Beach and is now on its first flight, circling the earth every 90 minutes. The craft is so secret, the Air Force will not even say when it will land.

This little craft, dubbed the Orbital Test VehicleX-37B, OTV, was launched last week for the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office on an Atlas V rocket into a low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 41. While in space, the OTV will operate like a satellite. But, what is new about this machine is it can return from space and land on a runway like a plane.

Similar to the space shuttles, the OTV gets into space aboard a non-reusable rocket, and then at the end of its mission, it returns to earth to land. But, unlike the space shuttles, the new craft is unmanned, so it lands on auto pilot.

Also different from the shuttles, which can stay up for two weeks or so, the OTV can stay in orbit up to 270 days. The Air Force won’t say what it will be doing all that time and they will not say when it will come down. When it does land, some time between now and 270 days from liftoff, it will most likely land at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The OTV has a cargo bay big enough for “two relatively small satellites”, but in its current configuration, it does not have a robotic arm to grab space items. Part of the craft’s value, however is that it can conduct experiments for a long period and then return the experiments to earth for analysis. But, those experiments are classified by the Air force.

At a Pentagon news conference shortly before the launch, Mr. Gary Payton, Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space Programs, said “the primary objectives of the X37 is a new batch of reusable technologies for America’s future plus learning and demonstrating the concept of operations for reusable experimental payloads. Take a payload up, spend up to 270 days on orbit. They’ll run experiments to see if the new technology works, then bring it all back home and inspect it to see what was really going on in space. So this is a new way for the Air Force to conduct experiments and we’re really excited about that.”

Manufactured and assembled by Boeing in Huntington Beach, with engineering from Boeing Seal Beach and satellite expertise from Boeing in El Segundo, the X-37B is truly a local product. Boeing spokesperson Diana Ball told www.OC180NEWS.com, the X-37B was built by Boeing’s Experimental Systems Group which “is a very small portion of the Huntington Beach {Boeing} population.”

The Experimental Systems Group is under Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems Division headquartered in Seal Beach. Spokesperson Ball would not identify any of the group’s other projects. She said “All the work they do is classified, so no one has probably even heard the name of that group.”

The Experimental Systems Group should not be confused with Boeing Phantom Works, which Ball explained “is the research arm of Boeing. When they really get serious about secrecy, they put the projects into Experimental Systems Group. Early on in the life of the X-37B, it was under Phantom Works, but “when the program transitioned over to the Air Force, and it was deemed a classified program, the contract was brought into the Experimental Systems Group in November of 2006.”

With about 5,500 employees in Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, and El Segundo, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems Division builds both commercial and military satellites. Experimental Systems Group is under contract to build a second OTV, which is scheduled for launch in spring 2011, but all we could get Spokesperson Ball to say about their other projects was that primarily “they work on satellite related technology.”

Under Secretary Payton said “Like in many of our space launches, not all of them but many of them, the actual on-orbit activities we do classify. So we’re doing that in this case for the actual experimental payloads that are on orbit with the X37. But again, our top priority is demonstrating the vehicle itself with its autonomous flight control systems, new generation of silica tile, and a wealth of other new technologies that are sort of one generation beyond the shuttle.”