Have protective garb, will inspect

There's a sort of "X Files" or "Fringe" feel to this photo, as technicians in self-contained protective suits close in on the X-37B for initial checks on that December 2010 night. The space plane bears a striking resemblance to the much larger space shuttles, and for a reason -- they share a common heritage in NASA's work on lifting-body vehicles. In fact, the X-37 initially was a NASA project that ran from 1999 through 2004, though the space agency never got as far as building that orbital vehicle. The Air Force and Boeing picked up where NASA left off to build the X-37B.

While there has been much speculation about what sort of a payload the X-37B might be carrying, on what sort of mission -- spying on China from on high? tinkering with satellites, friendly or otherwise? -- it may well be that these are little more than shakedown cruises. The Air Force does allow that program involves testing of guidance systems, avionics, autonomous flight and landing, and so on, along with the operation of unspecified experiments. Of course, there could be some mind games thrown in for good measure.