Longest orbital flight by a reusable spacecraft

The longest orbital flight by a reusable spacecraft is 2 years 50 days, achieved by the Boeing X-37B autonomous spaceplane between 2017 and 2019. The X-37B's record-setting mission began on 7 September 2017, when it was launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It came back down on 27 October 2019, touching down on the old Space Shuttle landing runway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

The X-47B is a 8.91-m-long (29-ft 3-in) spaceplane, similar in design to the Space Shuttle but only around a quarter of the size. It has a payload bay around the size of a pickup-truck bed and a solar array that is deployed once it reaches orbit. The X-37B's official name is the "Orbital Test Vehicle", or "OTV", and this mission (OTV-5) was carried out to test experimental satellite payloads and technologies. Much about the X-37B's uses and capabilities is shrouded in secrecy, leading to a great deal of speculation about its actual purpose. Amateur observers noticed that it raised and lowered its orbit during its mission, but the reasons for these manoeuvres are not clear. The pentagon has categorically denied that the X-37B is a weapon, or intended to carry weapons.

Previous records in this category were set by the X-37 in between 2010, 2015 and 2017. Before the X-37B, the record was held by Space Shuttle mission STS-80, which lasted for 17 days 15 hours 53 minutes between 19 November and 7 December 1996.