as the mission of usa-212 and the x-37b program are classified, public commentary on the program is speculation. james oberg speculated that the concurrent launch of air force's hypersonic technology vehicle htv-2 was related to the mission. part of an x-37b's mission profile might involve a simulated enemy attack, which the x-37b should be able to detect and autonomously counteract. htv-2 was launched at 23:00 utc on 22 april 2010, i.e., 52 minutes ahead of x-37b, from vandenberg air force base in california, on a suborbital trajectory supposed to last less than 25 min. the mission failed and was aborted nine minutes after launch.