U.S. Air Force Launches Secret Flying Twinkie

[Sabre]

Article

The liftoff of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral this month will mark one of the most secretive U.S. Air Force spaceflights in decades. Guessing the nature of the secret has become a sport among aficionados.
"This is one odd bird," military space historian Dwayne Day told IEEE Spectrum. "They're spending an awful lot of money for a test program that seems to have no real end user."
The 6000-kilogram, 8-meter X-37B OTV-1 is often called a flying Twinkie because of its stubby-winged shape. It was built in the Boeing Phantom Works high-security facility in Seal Beach, Calif. In the flight test, the craft is supposed to orbit Earth for several weeks, maneuver in orbit, and glide its way to a landing strip at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California.

[Mr Kleen]

[complacent]

this had better be an inter-dimensional travel device. i'm still waiting on my hover-board.

[Sabre]

They found it again!

It took the amateur sleuths nearly a month to hunt down the first X-37B after it launched on its inaugural mission. That’s an eternity in sky-spotting time. The second time around was easier. The U.S. space plane was discovered just four days after it blasted into orbit, earlier this month.