What is the Boeing X-37B spaceplane and what is it used for?

The Boeing X-37B is a reusable, uncrewed military spaceplane operated by the US Space Force. It launches vertically on a conventional rocket, operates in Earth orbit for months or years, then re-enters and lands autonomously on a runway. It is used to test spacecraft technology and carry classified and unclassified experiments.

What exactly is the Boeing X-37B?

The X-37B, formally called the Orbital Test Vehicle or OTV, is an orbital test platform rather than an aeroplane that can take off under its own power. In our Aviation & Real-World Flying coverage, the key distinction is that “spaceplane” describes its return: it operates as a spacecraft in orbit and an unpowered glider in the atmosphere.

The programme began as a NASA project in 1999, moved to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2004 and subsequently became a US Air Force programme. Its first orbital mission launched in 2010. The Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office manages the programme, while the US Space Force conducts its missions.

Boeing Phantom Works built the vehicle, making it one of the less conventional projects in Boeing’s wider aircraft and aerospace history.

What is the X-37B used for?

The X-37B is primarily used to test reusable spacecraft systems, operate experimental payloads and return hardware to Earth for examination. Its ability to bring equipment home distinguishes it from most satellites, whose engineers must rely on transmitted data after launch.

• Reusable spacecraft technology: Missions evaluate thermal protection, avionics, guidance, navigation, autonomous landing and other systems intended to survive repeated flights.
• Long-duration experiments: Payloads can be exposed to microgravity, radiation and the orbital environment for hundreds of days before being physically inspected.
• Payload deployment and return: The bay can host experiments, release selected small payloads and return installed hardware. OTV-6, for example, deployed the FalconSat-8 experimental satellite.
• Orbital operations: Missions test propulsion, communications, sensors and techniques for changing orbits efficiently.

Several payloads have been disclosed publicly. OTV-6 carried NASA materials and seed experiments, plus a Naval Research Laboratory experiment that converted solar energy into radio-frequency microwave energy. This was a technology demonstration, not an operational space-based power station.

OTV-7 operated in a highly elliptical orbit and demonstrated aerobraking, using repeated passes through the upper atmosphere to alter its orbit while conserving propellant. The eighth mission, launched in August 2025, included publicly announced quantum inertial sensing and laser-communications experiments.

How does the X-37B launch and land?

The X-37B rides to space on a separate launch rocket and returns through the atmosphere under automatic control.

1. Rocket launch: The spaceplane is enclosed in a payload fairing and carried into space. Different missions have used Atlas V, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
2. Orbital operation: Once in orbit, its payload bay opens and a solar array deploys. Thrusters control attitude and allow the vehicle to change orbit.
3. De-orbit and re-entry: A controlled burn lowers the orbit. Any mission-specific service module must be discarded before entry, after which heat-resistant surfaces protect the vehicle during its descent.
4. Autonomous runway landing: The X-37B glides to a runway using automatic guidance, lowers its landing gear and brakes after touchdown. It is not joystick-flown from the ground and cannot perform a powered go-around.

A mistake we see constantly is assuming that “reusable” applies to the complete launch stack. The winged X-37B itself is recovered; the launch vehicle and any attached service module are separate systems. X-37B landings have taken place at both Vandenberg Space Force Base and Kennedy Space Center.

Why are X-37B missions secret?

Many X-37B payloads, orbital manoeuvres and performance details are classified because the vehicle supports US military space research. The programme’s existence, launches, landings and broad experimental purpose are public, but officials do not release a complete manifest for every flight.

Observers can often determine an approximate orbit, but an orbit alone does not reveal what a payload is measuring or testing. Claims that assign a precise surveillance or combat mission without official evidence should therefore be treated as speculation.

Is the X-37B a weapon or spy plane?

No public evidence identifies the X-37B as an orbital weapons platform. It can carry military sensors and manoeuvre between orbits, but those capabilities do not prove that it is a weapon or a dedicated reconnaissance craft. Its confirmed role is as a reusable test vehicle for military and civilian experiments.

Is the X-37B a miniature Space Shuttle?

The X-37B resembles a miniature Space Shuttle, but its mission and operation are different. Both launch on rockets, survive orbital re-entry and glide to runway landings; the X-37B is only about one-quarter of the Shuttle orbiter’s length and has no cockpit, crew accommodation, life-support system or large cargo hold.

Its long endurance is possible partly because it carries no people. It does not need food, oxygen or the other consumables that constrained crewed Shuttle missions, and it can remain dormant or perform experiments for extended periods.

For simmers, an accurate recreation would need orbital mechanics, reaction-control thrusters, thermal constraints and automatic re-entry guidance; an ordinary aircraft flight model represents only the final glide. The fictional FCB9o9 spaceplane for FSX offers a creative spaceplane comparison, but it is not an X-37B systems simulation or a factual model of the real vehicle.