OREANDA-NEWS. The U.S. Air Force delivered new compact satellites into orbit as part of the mission of the experimental unmanned spacecraft X-37B. A message about this was published on Sunday on the official website of the Air Force. “Having successfully landed today, the X-37B completed the longest flight to date and successfully completed all the tasks”, said US Air Force spokesman Randy Walden. “As part of this mission, experiments were conducted in the Air Force Research Laboratory, and small satellites were also delivered".

The X-37B secret mission completed after 780 days in Earth orbit. The previous record of the spaceplane - 718 days. According to the US Air Force, the next (sixth) launch of this unmanned vehicle is planned for 2020.

Boeing Corporation launched the X-37B in 1999 under the auspices of NASA and, as Space.com writes, has produced at least two such vehicles. In 2004, the program was classified and transferred to the Air Force. According to information distributed by the Pentagon, the spaceplane is designed to operate at altitudes from 200 to 750 km, is able to quickly change orbits and maneuver.