During the first six missions, the X-37B spent more than 3,774 days in orbit. It launched on its current mission, OTV-7, on Dec. 28, 2023, and passed 400 days in orbit on Jan. 31. By comparison, the space shuttle spent 1,323 days in space during NASA shuttle flights between April 1981 and July 2011.

The Space Force's X-37B space plane, launched in December 2023, remains in orbit conducting experiments and maneuvers. The X-37B, designed to operate between 150-500 miles above Earth, recently performed a series of fuel-efficient maneuvers called "aerobraking" to adjust its orbit.