Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.

• Photos: Air Force's 2nd Secretive X-37B Space Plane Flight
• Photos: Spectacular Military Missile Launches
• Top 10 Space Weapons

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

3 Comments

1. 1. alan6302 08:36 PM 9/25/12

   The prophesy of the Moonraker movie will likely be verified.,...in part. In real life , James Bond will not stop it.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. Plain-2009 10:09 AM 9/28/12

   Excuse me. What is this? Is it like the space shuttle?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. Plain-2009 10:19 AM 9/28/12

   Ah, it is a unmanned mini Space Shuttle Orbiter. I have never heard of it, until now. It a curious,not too beautiful, machine.How well does it fly?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this