See secret space plane fly overhead. Shhhh! You're not supposed to know it's there!

William Atkins
Saturday, 02 April 2011 23:15

Science - Space

The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane is secretly flying around the Earth. But, you can see it fly over your local sky by knowing when and where to look. Find out here!

 

The X-37B is on a classified mission -- its second orbital mission so far.

Its orbit around Earth is not officially known to the public because the mission of the X-37B space plane is classified by the U.S. military.

However, amateur and professional sky watchers have already seen it fly over and are monitoring its progress as it flies around Earth. Nothing will stop their ingenuity, not even the secrecy of the military!

Anthony Cook, who works at the Griffith Observatory in Pasadena California, observed the X-37B from his home.

Cook says, "I saw the X-37B from my home in Pasadena, California, around sunrise on March 31st. The spacecraft's appearance was remarkable. When overhead it was a little brighter than a 2nd magnitude star with a slight yellow hue. Then it flared. As the X-37B moved toward the horizon it became silvery and brightened to around magnitude -6, far outshining Venus below it." [SpaceWeather.com]

Spaceweather.com states, 'The flare was presumably caused by sunlight glinting from some flat surface on the shuttle-shaped spacecraft, but no one can say for sure because it is a classified mission. Ready for a secret flare of your own?'

The X-37B is manufactured by The Boeing Company. The unmanned vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing (VTHL) space plane is used by the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate that such an robotic craft can be reused multiple times for various space missions. It kinda looks like the space shuttle, but much smaller, and it doesn't need a crew, everything is done remotely or within its computer system.

Page two continues with info on how and when to see the X-37B when (or if) it flies over your local sky.