U.S. Space Force X-37B Spaceplane Deorbits, Lands in California

Unmanned aircraft remained on-orbit for more than 434 days.

Friday, March 07, 2025 at 03:40 PM ET

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The U.S. Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission Seven successfully landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, March 7, 2025. The X-37B landed at Vandenberg SFB to exercise the service's ability to recover the spaceplane across multiple sites. [Courtesy: U.S. Space Force]

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. Space Force's X-37B OTV-7 spaceplane successfully concluded its seventh, highly secretive mission, landing after over 434 days in orbit.
Launched in December 2023 by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, the Boeing-built reusable vehicle operated in a highly elliptical orbit.
Key objectives of the mission included testing operations in new orbital regimes, exploring the effects of radiation on NASA payloads (like seeds), and conducting a novel aerobraking maneuver.
The mission demonstrated the X-37B's ability to flexibly accomplish test and experimentation objectives across various orbital regimes.

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U.S. Space Force’s unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7) has concluded its seventh mission, successfully deorbiting and landing in California, the U.S. Air Force said Friday.

The Boeing-built reusable spaceplane program is shrouded in secrecy and was launched in December 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket to a highly elliptical orbit. By the time it touched down at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 2:22 a.m. EST, it had remained on-orbit for more than 434 days.