USA - 212 USA - 212 was the first flight of the Boeing X - 37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 ( X - 37B OTV - 1 ) , an American unmanned robotic vertical - takeoff , horizontal - landing ( VTHL ) spaceplane . It was launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral on 22 April 2010 , and operated in low Earth orbit . Its designation is part of the USA series . The spaceplane is operated by the United States Air Force , which has not revealed the specific identity of the spaceship ' s payload for the mission . The Air Force has stated only that the spacecraft would " demonstrate various experiments and allow satellite sensors , subsystems , components , and associated technology to be transported into space and back . " Launch . USA - 212 was launched on an Atlas V 501 rocket , tail number AV - 012 , from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida . The launch , which was conducted by United Launch Alliance , occurred at 23 : 52 UTC on 22 April 2010 , placing the spacecraft into low Earth orbit for testing . The X - 37B spacecraft was originally intended to be deployed from the payload bay of a NASA Space Shuttle , but following the " Columbia " accident , it was transferred to a Delta II 7920 . It was subsequently transferred to the Atlas V following concerns over the X - 37B ' s aerodynamic properties during launch . The launch was the first flight of the Atlas V 501 configuration , and the first in four years to use a payload fairing . Prior to the installation of the spacecraft , the Atlas rocket was moved to the launch pad and performed a wet dress rehearsal on 2 April 2010 . It was returned to the Vertical Integration Facility the next day for final assembly . The X - 37 arrived at the VIF on 8 April . On 9 April , a 24 - hour delay was announced . It subsequently slipped a further 24 hours after the landing of on Mission STS - 131 was delayed , as the Eastern Range could not have been reconfigured quickly enough to accommodate both events on the same day . After a series of delays , it was set for 19 April 2010 . On 21 April , the Atlas was rolled back out to the launch pad for launch . The launch window on 22 April opened at 23 : 52 UTC , and closed at 00 : 01 on 23 April . Mission . Most of the mission parameters for the USA - 212 flight have not been disclosed . The vehicle is capable of being on - orbit for up to 270 days . The Air Force stated the mission time would depend on progress of the craft ' s experiments during orbit . Mission control was handled by the 3d Space Experimentation Squadron , 21st Space Wing , of the Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs . Observations by amateur skywatchers . In May 2010 , an amateur astronomer claimed to spot the spacecraft from his home in Toronto , Canada . Shortly after the initial observation , several more detailed observations were made by amateur skywatchers from around the world , who reported the spacecraft to have an almost circular low Earth orbit with an inclination of 40° . The group believed in their calculations and observations with a high degree of confidence . The spacecraft ' s ground path was observed to repeat every four days , which was considered indicative for a possible imaging reconnaissance mission profile . For two weeks , starting on 29 July , the amateur skywatchers were unable to find the spacecraft in the locations they had predicted , leading them to believe it had suddenly changed its course . During the mission , the vehicle was observed to change its orbit multiple times , with a total delta - v of the first four orbit changes amounting to . A common characteristic of all the orbits was that the ground track nearly repeated every few days . By 12 November 2010 , the orbit had been lowered to with the ground track now repeating every three days ( 47 orbits ) . Altitude and ground track resonance history . Based on data collected by amateur observers , the following orbital characteristics were calculated by amateur skywatcher Ted Molczan . Landing . After completing its mission , the X - 37B was deorbited , entered the atmosphere , and landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base on 3 December 2010 . The X - 37B is the second reusable spacecraft to perform an automated landing after returning from orbit , the first being the Soviet Buran spacecraft in 1988 . Hypothetical mission components . As the mission of USA - 212 and the X - 37B program are classified , public commentary on the program is speculation . James Oberg speculated that the concurrent launch of Air Force ' s Hypersonic Technology Vehicle HTV - 2 was related to the mission . Part of an X - 37B ' s mission profile might involve a simulated enemy attack , which the X - 37B should be able to detect and autonomously counteract . HTV - 2 was launched at 23 : 00 UTC on 22 April 2010 , i . e . , 52 minutes ahead of X - 37B , from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California , on a suborbital trajectory supposed to last less than 25 min . The mission failed and was aborted nine minutes after launch . William Scott , coauthor of the techno - novel " Counterspace : The Next Hours of World War III " and former Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief for " Aviation Week & Space Technology " magazine believes that with X - 37B , the Air Force might test weapon delivery from a space plane in low Earth orbit . He mentions Rods from God as a possible scenario . This hypothesis aligns with speculation that the launch of USA - 212 marks the beginning of military operations in space .