A top secret American ‘space plane’ has been photographed by an amateur astronomer in the Netherlands.
The US Air Force’s mysterious X-37B craft conducts intelligence operations from orbit. Built by Boeing and flown remotely, the craft – also known as Orbital Test Vehicle 4 – is on a mission the U.S. will only describe as ‘classified’. But it was finally pictured by Ralf Vandebergh, an aeronautics journalist and amateur space photographer who has apparently been chasing the elusive machine for months.
He told LiveScience that he had been able to track it down in May but wasn’t able to get photos of it. Then, it seemingly disappeared. ‘When I tried to observe it again [in] mid-June, it didn’t meet the predicted time and path,’ Vandebergh explained.
read more at metro.co.uk
The #OTV5 / #X37B space plane photographed in orbit! Finally an image showing this mini-Space Shuttle which is only a fraction in size of the real Space Shuttle. Nevertheless, the images succeeded beyond expectations and show even a sign of the nose/payload bay/tail or even more. pic.twitter.com/Uy7qBCnoif
— Ralf Vandebergh (@ralfvandebergh) July 3, 2019