The US Air force will launch an 5,5tons orbital test demonstrator of the X-37 military space plane at april 19 on an Atlas V rocket.

Sources at UN are concerned that it has the capability to carry weapons and to intercept satellittes

Originally NASA started developing the X37 in 1999, as a supplement to the ISS, but after budget-cut's for ISS, the United States Airforce continued to develop the X-37 for military purposes.

Built by Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works, the 5,5tons craft is 1,25meters in diameter and 8,8meters long. It has a wingspan of 4,6meter and  two angled tail fins with a height of 2,9meters. The X-37

The Spaceshuttles are basically transporters like trucks, while the much smaller and more agile X-37B is more equvalent to a sports car with cargo capacity. It's inner cargo hull is 1meter in diameter and 5meters long.

Unlike the shuttle, it will be launched like a satellite, on an Atlas V rocket, and it will deploy solar panels to provide electrical power while it is in orbit.

According to the airforce, it can stay in orbit for 270days and will land at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The duration of the test flight is undisclosed.

Theresa Hitchens, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, Switzerland, who is former former head of the Center for Defense Information's Space Security Program is concerned with the X-37B and says:

"The problem with it (the X37-B) is whether you see it as a weapons platform. It then becomes, if I am not mistaken, a Global Strike platform. There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about Global Strike as a concept" 

READ MORE on X-37 at NASA
Launch details: Physorg
Political comments: Foxnews