Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing.

ENGADGET: USAF relaunches its first X-37B on a slightly less mysterious spaceflight

The company has to conduct battery- and insulation-related pre-flight inspections, watch battery behavior like a hawk, use only its own pilots and fly over unpopulated areas.

ENGADGET