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The secretive X-37B robotic space plane is about to set its own space-endurance record on a secret project operated by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. The craft  was boosted into Earth orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket on March 5. Today (Dec 1), the X-37B spacecraft will mark its 270th day of flight. The X-37B's staying power is made feasible by its deployable solar array power system, unfurled from the vehicle's cargo bay. [Built by Boeing's Phantom Works, the X-37B spacecraft is about 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide. It has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. The X-37B resembles a miniature version of NASA's space shuttle. Two X-37Bs could fit inside the 60-foot (18-meter) cargo bay of a space shuttle.

When this second X-37B flight does end, it is designed to carry out an automatic guided-entry-and-wheels-down runway landing, likely at Vandenberg Air Force Base, with neighboring Edwards Air Force Base serving as a backup. If the incoming space plane strays off its auto-pilot trajectory as it zooms over the Pacific Ocean, the craft has a self-destruct mechanism. As for the future of the X-37B series, derivatives of the vehicle have been proposed as possibilities to fly cargo and even crew to the International Space Station.