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US To Launch Military Orbital Spaceplane

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-have-been-recruited-by-the-star-league-to-defend-the-frontier-from-Xur dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Not only is the US readying its first 100% military spaceplane for a November launch, but it's going to push NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission til 2009: 'The USAF and Boeing will launch the X-38B — the first military orbital space plane if you discount the secret military shuttle — on top of an Atlas V rocket in November. They want to test its flying features in space and during atmospheric reentry. And probably its anti-matter rays and nuclear bays and hyperspace engines too (but of course, they are never going to tell you that). However, there seems to be a conflict with the civilian space program which may push one of the Moon exploration missions to 2009.' Screw the moon. We have to defend ourselves against all those alien extremists from Mars!"

6 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Weird by johannesg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, but at least it follows the SSAS ("Slashdot Standards for Accuracy in Summaries") pretty well! Let's see:

    - The summary calls the vehicle "X38B".
    - The article calls it "X37B".
    - But the article also has a picture of a craft clearly labelled "X40A". Of course that could just be a red herring.

    Maybe the editors figured they'd just average the numbers from the article to be on the safe side?

  2. Militarization of space ? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't there an international treaty signed by US and Russia against this ? Is that the start of a new race ?

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    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    1. Re:Militarization of space ? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The treaty that you speak of was signed by the Soviet Union, NOT Russia. As hard as it is to believe, those two political organizations have almost nothing in common.

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      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  3. So how many... by oodaloop · · Score: 3, Interesting

    UFO sightings does this explain? Military planes take 20 or more years of testing, and TFA says they've flowin it before. So how many times did someone in the Southwest spot one and say, "That ain't no plane. It's movin way too fast!"

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    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  4. Oh dear god, Obama might be right! by tjstork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm pretty much a hardcore Republican that thinks Obama is a sort of Pharonic anti-christ, but, Obama's criticisms of NASA suddenly stand in stark relief when we suddenly see that the USAF is actually building a credible spaceplane and NASA, in its Constellation program, is admitting that it can't do it. Sure, one might argue that NASA is strapped for funds, but I like how the USAF had no problem turning to White Knight to test its stuff out rather than NIH'ing the whole program. Maybe we -do- need to kill NASA's manned space flight program.

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  5. Way to win asymmetric warfare by wisty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    OK, your troops are fighting a guerilla war (actually several guerilla wars) against low-tech terrorist cells. Bugger flack jackets and armored vehicles (or better yet, 'educational' aid to Africa to head off the next generation of extremists), you need space superiority.