Outer space

Gotcha! US Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane Spotted by Satellite Tracker

The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane may be secretive, but it's not invisible.

Netherlands-based satellite tracker Marco Langbroek snapped long-exposure photos of the robotic mini-shuttle zooming over the city of Leiden yesterday (Aug. 20), capturing the spacecraft's rapid trek across the night sky as a thin streak of light.

The Air Force discloses little about X-37B missions, keeping details about the plane's orbit and most of its payloads close to the vest. But Langbroek said he's confident that the light trail he photographed came from the space plane, which is also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). [The X-37B Space Plane: 6 Surprising Facts]