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Launch of robotic spacecraft to be webcast

By W.J. Hennigan
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The X-37 inside a capsule atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Credit: United Launch Alliance.

A small robotic spacecraft that looks like a miniature version of the space shuttle is set to launch today from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The spacecraft, dubbed the X-37, will be sent up on top of an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., and will be webcast beginning at 4:32 p.m. PST on the company’s website. The launch is set for 4:52 p.m.

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The U.S. Air Force, which has been developing the X-37 pilotless space plane, hasn’t said much about the spacecraft, fueling speculation that it’s being developed for military purposes.

Built by Boeing Co.’s advanced research lab, Phantom Works, in Huntington Beach, the X-37 would be the first U.S. unmanned spacecraft to be launched into space and come back to Earth on its own.

The X-37, which Air Force officials say can stay in space for up to nine months, is expected to land on the 15,000-foot landing strip at Vandenberg Air Force Base, although Air Force officials did not say when it will return.

-- W.J. Hennigan

Technology Blog
W.J. Hennigan

W.J. Hennigan covered the Pentagon and national security issues from Washington, D.C., before leaving the Los Angeles Times bureau in November 2017. While there, he reported on war, counter-terrorism, and the lives of American service members from more than two dozen countries and previously covered the aerospace and defense industry from Los Angeles. Hennigan earned awards from the National Press Club, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and was a contributor to the Los Angeles Times coverage of the terror attacks in San Bernardino that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2016.

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