February 13, 2006 - Next up on our tour of unusual Mojave inhabitants is the Boeing/NASA X-37. This vehicle is a 120% scale version of the earlier X-40. Originally intended as an orbital testbed, NASA funding cuts doomed its space-faring future, but a DARPA contract resurrected the program as an atmospheric test platform. The airframe was modified to be mounted under an aircraft, first the NASA B-52, but when that proved too expensive, the White Knight was selected as a better alternative. Where the payload bay doors were, the mounting structure was installed. The main goal of this part of the program is to develop and demonstrate the systems needed for the X-37 to fly down to a landing and stop at a predetermined point without any human input. To that end, a lot of testing has taken place at Mojave where the X-37 is towed down the runway behind a Chevy pickup and then released to test how it maintains runway centerline alignment as well as braking abilities. Rumors are that it will fly once more in captive-carry mode under the White Knight before being released for free-flight over Edwards.

I'm surprised Chevy hasn't picked up on the PR value of having their truck tow a spaceplane around....