The U.S. Air Force has kept an unmanned space shuttle in orbit for the past two years. No one without security clearance knows what it's been doing up there. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which can enter orbit and land without human intervention, is scheduled to touch down this week. The landing will mark completion of the program's third and longest mission. The Air Force has two such spacecraft for these low-earth orbit missions, all of which are classified. "The mission is basically top secret," says Captain Chris Hoyler, an Air Force spokesman. Marco Caceres, a space analyst with Teal Group, says the Air Force is most likely interested in having a surveillance platform that can "maneuver in orbit faster" than satellites. The Air Force appears to be planning a future for the program. Speculation has flourished online about what the government is doing. Theories range from surveillance to [developing] the platform for a new generation of kinetic weapons that can be used from space [to] testing the craft so it can eventually drop special-forces soldiers from space to anywhere on the planet, within minutes.
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