Secretive Space Force ship returns to Earth after spending 434 days in orbit conducting mysterious tests

A secretive spaceship spending over a year in space doing mysterious tests is surely just the plot of a sci-fi film. Could even be a bit of romance or maybe an action?

But it’s also pretty much what’s been going on in real life.

Yep, a secretive Space Force ship has now returned to Earth after a spending a whopping 434 days in orbit conducting some mysterious tests.

SpaceX quietly launched the boeing-made X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7) back in 2023 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The unmanned spaceplane then deorbited and landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California yesterday (7 March).

The spaceplane landed yesterday. (U.S. Space Force)

The U.S Space Force (USSF) explained in a statement that it landed the X-37B there to exercise ‘its rapid ability to launch and recover its systems across multiple sites’.

Officials added that it is the seventh successful test flight of one of these vehicles.

The USSF added that, while it was on orbit, a range of test and experimentation objectives were accomplished, demonstrating the X-37B’s ‘robust manoeuvre capability while helping characterize the space domain through the testing of space domain awareness technology experiments’.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said: “Mission 7 broke new ground by showcasing the X-37B’s ability to flexibly accomplish its test and experimentation objectives across orbital regimes.

“The successful execution of the aerobraking manoeuvre underscores the U.S. Space Force’s commitment to pushing the bounds of novel space operations in a safe and responsible manner.”

While us mere muggles might not quite get our heads around just what the spaceplane was doing up and out there, it apparently tested ‘space domain awareness technology experiments’.

It was the seventh successful test flight for the ship. (Air Force photo/Michael Stonecypher)

And it’s aimed that this will improve the USSF’s (the Trump-made military branch) knowledge of the space environment.

Apparently, this kind of technology is ‘critical’ to the USSF’s ability to conduct space operations.

Commenting on the achievements from this 434 days in orbit, X-37B Program Director, Lt. Col. Blaine Stewart stated: “Mission 7’s operation in a new orbital regime, its novel aerobraking maneuver, and its testing of space domain awareness experiments have written an exciting new chapter in the X-37B program.

“Considered together, they mark a significant milestone in the ongoing development of the U.S. Space Force’s dynamic mission capability.”