Operations for the military’s top secret space plane are being moved to Brevard County.
This week, NASA confirmed the Orbiter Processing Facilities, which are near the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, will be used to process the X-37B space plane.
Those facilities have pretty much sat empty since the space shuttle’s retirement.
Now the unmanned test vehicle for the U.S. Air Force, which looks similar to a space shuttle, will be worked on in the former shuttle hangars
The Air Force isn’t releasing much information on the X-37B, but said it operates experiments in space.
The space plane is able to stay in space for a long time. The previous X-37B launched in December 2012, and is still in space nearly two years later.
Some space experts suspect the 29-foot vehicle is a weapon for the United States.
Local economic leaders said the U.S. Air Force and Boeing, the vehicle’s manufacturer, can land, recover, refurbish and relaunch the space plane.
NASA says testing has been done at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility to demonstrate landing the X-37B is feasible from Florida.
Upgrades to the old hangars should be completed in December.