United States launched the first unmanned orbital aircraft.

The launch drone was held at 19:52 on April 22 (3:55 on April 23 in Moscow) with rocket Atlas 5. U.S. Air Force reported that the launch was successful, but did not provide details of the mission vehicle in orbit. As noted by the agency, X-37B is able to remain in orbit for 270 days. Estimated landing sites — the U.S. Air Force Vandenberg base in California. As previously reported, the flight of X-37B will be offline before entering the atmosphere during landing.

A few days earlier the deputy assistant administrator for space programs, U.S. Air Force Gary Payton (Gary Payton), referring to the unit, told reporters that the agency "did not know when he would come back.

The U.S. military did not disclose the purposes of the launch vehicle, however, as previously assumed, in orbit will be carried out checking of all onboard systems drone, including the control system.

Work on the creation of X-37 were conducted in the U.S. since the 1950’s. Testing apparatus were from 1986 to 2007. Purpose for which the U.S. Air Force plans to use the orbital plane is not disclosed. According to the official version of its main function will be on-orbit delivery of goods. According to other versions of the X-37 will be used for intelligence purposes.