Flying high above the Mojave, Calif., desert, the X-37, an unpiloted, reusable space plane, made its first captive-carry flight June 21 under the wings of Burt Rutan’s White Knight, the same plane that carried SpaceShipOne on the initial phase of its historic flight into suborbital space on the exact same date a year ago.

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Leonard David has been reporting on space activities for nearly 50 years. He is the 2010 winner of the prestigious National Space Club Press Award and recently co-authored with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin the book “Mission to Mars — My Vision for Space...