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The U.S. Air Force's info X-37B expanse form was every set to start on its ordinal assignment this afternoon, but the Florida defy didn't cooperate.

The unmanned X-37B mini-shuttle — famous as Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2) — was questionable to verify to the skies from Cape Canaveral at 3:50 p.m. EST (2050 GMT) today atop an Atlas 5 rocket. But cloudy, windy conditions caused officials to scrub that attempt. There is one more start pane open today, from 5:27 to 5:37 p.m. EST (2227 to 2237 GMT), officials said.

The dishonor defy didn't catch assignment planners soured protect — Air Force officials had said in the days directive up to the start attempt that there was a 70 proportionality chance of a delay caused by weather.

If the defy scuttles the late-afternoon start as well, the incoming opportunity comes tomorrow (March 5), officials said.

When it does wind off, OTV-2 module start on the X-37B's ordinal expanse mission. The Air Force's other X-37B vehicle, famous as OTV-1, launched terminal Apr and returned in Dec after seven mysterious months in space. [Photos: Flight of the X-37B Space Plane]

With its forthright nose and stubby wings, the unmanned X-37B spacecraft resembles a picture version of NASA's expanse shuttles.

The X-37B is most 29 feet daylong and 14 feet panoramic (8.8 by 4.2 meters), with a payload niche most the size of a restorative pushcart bed. It is fashioned to start vertically exclusive the nose cone of a rocket, meet in itinerary for months at a time, and then realty horizontally on a runway same a expanse shuttle. [Infographic: The X-37B Space Plane]

The X-37B's cost, payloads and missions are classified. Partly as a termination of this secrecy, some anxiety has been raised—particularly by country and China—that the container is a expanse weapon of some sort.

But Air Force officials have repeatedly denied that charge, claiming that the expanse plane's important task is to support effort discover technologies — much as new guidance, curb and guidance systems — for future satellites. Some experts think the X-37B is disagreeable discover hardware for next-generation spy satellites, which would vindicate every the secrecy.

Boeing's Space and Intelligence Systems division builds the X-37B for the Air Force. Originally, NASA utilised the expanse form as an empiric effort bottom until funding for the project ran discover in 2004.

The container then passed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and was finally overturned over to the Air Force in 2006.

The United Launch Alliance, which is overseeing the start of OTV-2, module wage springy news of the ordinal attempt after this afternoon. Watch the webcast here.

You can study SPACE.com grownup illustrator Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall.

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