X-37C

Mission Profile

X-37C was a proposed crewed variant of the US Air Force's X-37B autonomous spaceplane, intended to scale up the X-37B's lifting-body design to accommodate a crew of up to six astronauts in a pressurized cabin. Studied primarily in the late 2000s alongside Boeing's CST-100 and other Commercial Crew contenders, X-37C would have used the X-37B's autonomous landing and reuse capability while adding crew accommodation and life support systems. The concept was not selected for development under the Commercial Crew Program, and the crewed lifting-body approach was ultimately not pursued in favor of the capsule-based Dragon and Starliner designs.