After two years it's back! Mysterious Air Force spaceship to land in California

The United States mysterious X-37B unmanned space plane is about to land after it has spent almost two years in orbit on a classified mission.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Air Force announced that the X-37B will land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, though an exact time is not yet known. The Federal Aviation Administration's website did announce that airspace around the Southern California base would be closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time on October 15.

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"Team Vandenberg stands ready to implement safe landing operations for the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, the third time for this unique mission," said Col. Keith Baits, commander of the 30th Space Wing.

The X-37B took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida back in December of 2012, and at the time the Air Force said its mission would last around nine months. But instead the spacecraft has remained in orbit for more than 22 months, causing speculation of the craft's mission to run rampant.

But the Air Force has suggested the ship is used for much more mundane missions.

The small, space shuttle like craft "is designed to demonstrate reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth," an Air Force statement said.

"Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing."

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