X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mockup

X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mockup. . The Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is a reusable unmanned spacecraft. It is boosted into space by an Atlas V rocket, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands on a runway as a space-plane similar to the Space Shuttle orbiter. The X-37B is operated by the U.S. Air Force for missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies (many of them are classified). Originating as a NASA program in 1999, the OTV was designed to deploy from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle. Before the program was transferred to the Department of Defense in 2004, NASA built this full-scale mockup for training inside the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The NBL allows astronauts to train on extravehicular activities (spacewalks) underwater in a simulated zero gravity environment. This full-scale mockup is 27 feet (8.2 meters) long, with a 15 foot (4.6 meter) wingspan, and a gross weight of 4,500 pounds (2,040 kg)., Fun Fact: The Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) is 202 feet (62 m) long, 102 feet (31 m) wide, and 40 feet (12.34 m) deep and holds 6.2 million gallons of water. Even at this large size, it doesn't compare to the world's largest pool in Algarrobo, Chile which is 3,323 feet long and holds 66 million gallons of water., Captions , NASA Astronaut Sandy Magnus trains in the NBL in Houston, Texas, where this X-37B mockup was used for training. , On loan from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH-NMMSH #IL075.015