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US launch military space craft

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US launch military space craft

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ODN

328 Views • Mar 06, 2011

Description


The United States Air Force has launched an experimental space plane on a classified mission.


The prototype miniature space shuttle blasted off aboard an unmanned rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, for a demonstration run that could last as long as nine months.


Known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, it is the second ship to sent into orbit under a US military programme.


The vehicles are smaller versions of Nasa's space shuttle orbiters, 29 feet (8.8 metres) long, 14 feet (4.3 metres) across.


The one-third scale spaceships are solar powered, unlike the space shuttles, and are not designed to carry people.


They are intended to test technologies for low-cost, quick-turnaround, reusable space vehicles, as well as serve as orbital testbeds for instruments that could be incorporated into future satellites.