Secretive military space plane lands, rattles Florida with sonic boom

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - U.S. military officials say an unmanned spacecraft orbiting Earth since May 2015 has landed in Florida.

The Air Force posted tweets that the X37B spacecraft landed Sunday morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral after 718 days in orbit.

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Multiple media outlets reported that the 29-foot-long spacecraft's return caused a sonic boom that rattled central Florida and could be heard as far away as Tampa and Fort Myers.

Floridians took to Twitter -- some to complain that they'd been given no warning about the landing.

Thought somebody crashed into my garage ... It was just a sonic boom 🙄😐 Thanks @NASA for the scare!
— Felicity Smoak (@6thGreekLetter) May 7, 2017

Something just went thru the sound barrier. Big sonic boom over my house!!! 🚀💥
— AstroHardin ♱ (@AstroHardin) May 7, 2017

Anyone know what the big boom in East Orange county (Waterford/Curry Ford Rd) was - 7:44am? Sounded like a sonic boom.
— Becky Chapman (@Bezaleldaughter) May 7, 2017

It's the spacecraft's first landing in Florida. Previous X37B missions have landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

In a statement , officials said the X37B spacecraft is "an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force." Another mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral later this year.

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