USAF X-37B Space Plane breaks records yet again.

                                                                  10/28/19

Photo credits: USAF 45th Space Wing

 Sunday morning Space Coast residents here in Florida where awakened or not depending on who you talk to, by the US Air Force's super secret X-37B OTV-5 spaceplane.

Photo Credit: SpaceX

The X-37B returned from its 780 day flight in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), breaking World Records yet again. The OTV-5 lifted off from LC-39A at KSC on September 7, 2017 at 10:00 am EDT on board the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 booster landed safely at LZ-1 around 8.5 minutes later.

Photo Credit: SpaceX

At 3:51 am EDT the X37b landed safely breaking the sound barrier and creating those beautiful Sonic booms over the spacecoast that so many people got used to when the Shuttle Orbiters returned to launch site (RTLS) on the former Shuttle Landing Facility runway at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island. An event that has  been re-invigorated by SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster's with their landings on SpaceX Landing Site 1.

Photo credits: USAF 45th Space Wing

Since the Space Shuttle programs retirement in 2011, the landing facility has  been used by numerous agencies to test automobile driving tests and speed records for Starfighters a long term tenant of the SLF for their F-104 Starfighter jet aircract,  to United Launch Alliance and Lockheed Martin among others.