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Air Force Extends Plug-and-Play Spacecraft

Posted by timothy on from the can-we-get-an-analogy-upgrade? dept.

coondoggie writes "Looking to build strategic satellites in days if need be, rather than months, the Air Force is pushing forward with what it calls plug-and-play spacecraft. This week it awarded a $500,000 order to Northrop Grumman to begin designing the plug-and-play spacecraft 'bus' which will offer standard interfaces for a variety of payload components, much like a laptop computer that immediately recognizes new hardware when it's plugged in, Northrop stated. The order was awarded under a contract that has a ceiling of $200 million."

3 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. God bless the idiot-proof Air Force by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hapablap: Oh...not the Harrier! We've got a war tomorrow.
              Bob: [sees control panel with two buttons, STOP and FLY]
                        God bless the idiot-proof Air Force.

    He presses the FLY button, and the jet taxis forward into a ditch.
    Sideshow Bob switches to the Wright Brothers plane.

  2. this very same thinking by siddesu · · Score: 5, Funny

    is what got the aliens beaten by a macintosh and a loser like jeff goldblum. compile everything in, disable all dynamic modules!

  3. Re:Just laptops? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I suspect the intent was to draw some sort of parallel between laptops and spacecraft... I suppose since a laptop is portable... and so is a spacecraft.

    Because a PC is much letter portable than a spacecraft...