CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — U.S. military officials say an unmanned aircraft orbiting Earth since May 2015 has landed in Florida.
The Air Force posted tweets that the X-37B shuttle landed Sunday morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral after 718 days in orbit.
The #AirForce #X37B #OTV4 is back after more than 700 days in #Space. @NASAKennedy pic.twitter.com/02WdzMSDJe
— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) May 7, 2017
Multiple media outlets reported that the 29-foot-long aircraft's return caused a sonic boom that rattled central Florida and could be heard as far away as Tampa and Fort Myers.
It's the shuttle's first landing in Florida. Previous X-37B missions have landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
In a statement , officials said the X-37B shuttle is "an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force."
Another mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral later this year.
