I stumbled upon this tweet by @SteveLevine1 on Sunday night (5/23/10) claiming that "Amateur skywatchers spot secret space plane". I thought it was a bunch of bull but I clicked on the link anyway.

To my wonderous suprise, the link was legit! The story link pointed to Space.com. The story,  Secret X-37B Space Plane Spotted by Amateur Skywatchers, was by SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist, Leonard Dave. Also surprising were the pictures of the secret space plane.

 

So what is the Secret Space Plane X-37B? Accoridng to the space.com story, "The reusable X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 was built by Boeing Phantom Works. It is about 29 feet (9 meters) long and has a wingspan of just over 14 feet (4 meters) across. It stands just over 9 1/2 feet (3 meters) tall and weighs nearly 11,000 pounds (about 5,000 kg)." But the really cool fact is that it was designed to stay in space for up to 270 days orbiting the Earth.

If this information was not enough incentive to goto Space.com to read the whole story, then maybe this will: Satellite sleuth Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario, caught this view of the secretive X-37B robotic space plane cruising across the sky during May, 2010. The link for the video is at the bottom of the story.

The amatuer trackers must be having a field day. Thanks to them, we have this great story.

 

@dmgerbino