FOX 35 Orlando coverage CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The military’s robotic mini shuttle is back in space after launching through the clouds at Cape Canaveral this morning.
Delayed a day by the season’s first tropical storm, the X-37B space plane caught its ride to orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket just after 10 a.m.
The rocket’s bright yellow flame cut through the grey haze before disappearing quickly behind the still-low clouds, leaving only a crackling rumble behind.
The OTV-6 mission is the sixth flight for the highly secretive X-37B program. The Air Force has two of the uncrewed mini shuttles; both have flown long-duration missions of increasing lengths – the last was over two years long – before gliding back to Earth.