XBradTC

CAPE CANAVERAL — The U.S. Air Force on Friday made its first public confirmation that the X-37B unmanned space shuttle will be launched next month on the fourth flight of an Orbital Test Vehicle.

“We are excited about our fourth X-37B mission,” said Randy Walden, the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. “With the demonstrated success of the first three missions, we’re able to shift our focus from initial checkouts of the vehicle to testing of experimental payloads.”

The Air Force said its Rapid Capabilities Office had collaborated with several partners to test “new experiments on this fourth flight for the X-37B program.”

via Fourth X-37B flight a month away from launching | Spaceflight Now.

Roamy pointed this out to me.

What’s interesting is that beyond the fact that they’ll launch the thing, there’s really no information in this press release. No idea what it will be doing up there (beyond vague propulsion stuff) or how long it will be up there, or why use the X-37, and not some other platform.

Tis a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in an enigma.