On April 19, according to a United Launch Alliance
notice, the USAF-Boeing X-37B orbital test vehicle will launch into space atop an Atlas V booster. The event comes
about two years after USAF expected to see this small-size, unmanned shuttle off on its first flight. USAF developed the program from early work done by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and expects it to serve as a recoverable test platform for space technologies, according to a November 2006
announcement.
Air and Space Magazine
reported in January, that this X-37B is 27.5 feet long with a 15-foot wingspan, will operate in low Earth orbit like the space shuttle, and will "take a suite of next-generation technologies to orbit." Much beyond that, said Air and Space, only "a select few" in DOD know what it will do and for how long. (Also read,
Spaceflight Now report; AP
report;
Christian Science Monitor report)
The Marine Corps on April 2 activated the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 at Eglin AFB, Fla., where it will train pilots in the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant under Air Education and Training Command's 33rd Fighter Wing at the joint F-35 schoolhouse. This marked the first time a marine unit has been embedded with a USAF wing, which already gained USMC Col. Arthur Tomassetti last fall as deputy wing commander and Navy Capt. Mike Saunders last summer as 33rd Operations Group deputy commander. Despite the F-35 restructure announced in February, Air Force senior leaders have said the Pentagon plans to provide early delivery of F-35 training assets. VMFAT-501 expects to receive its first STOVL aircraft this fall, as does the 33rd FW for the first F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant. (Now vintage 2008 briefing charts pegged first F-35A CTOL arrival in March 2010.) (Eglin report by Samuel King Jr.)