A robotic U.S. Air Force space plane is set to land in California as soon as this week after a secretive 22-month flight hundreds of miles above Earth.
Boeing Co. and SpaceX, selected by NASA last month to carry astronauts to the International Space Station, can resume development of their human-rated spacecraft after officials ordered a work stoppage prompted by a protest by Sierra Nevada Corp., the company left out of the contracts.
Boeing engineers are outfitting two decommissioned space shuttle hangars at the Kennedy Space Center for the U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane.
NASA has directed Boeing and SpaceX to halt activities under contracts awarded last month to build commercial space taxis to ferry astronauts to the Space Station while the U.S. Government Accountability Office reviews a protest of NASA’s decision filed by Sierra Nevada.