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After a Year In Orbit, US Air Force's X37-B Will Conclude Its Secret Mission
SomePgmr writes "The U.S Air Force's highly secret unmanned space plane will land in June — ending a year-long mission in orbit. The experimental Boeing X37-B has been circling Earth at 17,000 miles per hour and was due to land in California in December. It is now expected to land in mid to late June. And still, no one knows what the space drone has been doing up there all this time."
...I'm guessing most here will believe that its mission was one of unmitigated evil.
It's probably designed to shred the Constitution — from space!
Not even the people who launched it?
Someone probably knows, I'd bet several people. Just not yet us.
Considering the huge number of satellites and space debris, I'm going to say that it was just stuck in traffic all year. Space rush hour really sucks!
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Skynet knows.
17,000 miles per hour, I guess that's something like 30,000 km/h? That seems pretty fast to me. How much fuel did that consume, and how did they provide it with fuel for a whole year?
How secret can it be if we know it happened? What we really have to worry/consider are the things that we never even know happen, not just "don't know their purpose."
If the general community know that this 'secret' spaceplane was up there doing stuff, then you can guarantee that it wasn't doing anything sensitive, though possibly classified. When they do really important and secret things, you can guarantee that we never even know it happened at all.
From the Article......
"At launch, the space plane was accompanied by staff in biohazard suits, leading to speculation that there were radioactive components on board. "
Why cant journalists that actually have an education in science cover science subjects?
Really? a BIOHAZARD suit for RADIOACTIVE protection?
Funny comment in the article: "At launch, the space plane was accompanied by staff in biohazard suits, leading to speculation that there were radioactive components on board."
I'd wear protective suits if it is fueled with hypergolic propellant since it's extremely toxic, so the comment about radioactive components is just bs IMHO.
--- Reality doesn't care about your opinions, it happens anyway and if you are in the way you'll get squished.
I talked to someone who saw the Dream Chaser space plane undergoing air tests north of Boulder. Its one of four private manned vehicles in first-round development funded by NASA. I hear its supposed to be drop-tested from SpaceShipTwo later this year.
Not even the air force, or DARPA, or the NSA.
Government Spokesperson:
"It just kinda launched itself and seemed to be having a good time up there so we let it be."
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
Setting a new government verified standard for "on-time" arrivals. After this benchmark; was due to land in California in December. It is now expected to land in mid to late June -- how can anyone complain about being a few hours late!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Nukes in space has been possible for 50 years. We don't do it because there are treaties against it, treaties that have remarkably been followed by all involved. It's not a a boat that anyone involved really wants to start rocking.
It's not so much that there has been any great restraint on the part of the nuclear armed space powers as that there is no point to having them in orbit. ICBMs get anywhere in the world in 30 minutes, SLBMs are even quicker since they are closer. Silos are very well hardened and subs are hard to find- orbiting satellites have limited maneuverability, so you always know where the warhead is. A good chunk of the time orbital dynamics is going to say you're out of position to even hit your desired target. Plus, stuff in space can't be maintained easily and warheads need occasional maintenance to do things like replace the tritium boosters and check the electronics.
It's basically just not necessary
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Do not taunt happy fun shuttle.
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Hey. At least it could come back when it got bored. Not stuck up there like Spirit.
Have gnu, will travel.
1 year in orbit, 1 year to mars. Seems like a trial of whether the thing can stay sealed up and functional that long.
You're suggesting that the US Air Force is planning on invading Mars?
Look, I know they have mission plans for all sorts of unlikely things, but I believe you're pushing the envelope here.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
One thing that has been desirable has been to keep surveillance drones in flight for as long as possible. The longest shuttle mission was 17 days and 15 hours. This drone has been up there for a year before coming down.
Yeah, because it was essentially a satellite in orbit around the earth. We already have spy satellites, and have had them for a lot longer than we have had drones.
The reason why we're using a lot of drones now, despite already having satellites, is because the drones can maintain a lengthy continuous presence over a specific location, rather than passing over that location at regular intervals in an orbit which can be discovered and then worked around. In terms of amount of time continuously observing an area of interest, this space plane has vastly lower numbers than any UAV -- just like all spy satellites.
If you are picturing this being used for surveillance, then what they showed is not a drone with an extremely long loiter time. It's a satellite with an extremely short orbital life span.
I think they're aiming to replace spy satellites with these drones and this was a test to see if a drone can stay up in space for a long duration and still arrive back on ground intact for repairs or to upgrade its system.
If the military has upgraded equipment they want to put in a spy satellite, they just launch a new one. They have no need to recover old ones (unlike back in the day when spy satellites used film), so they just let the old one deorbit.
To figure out what the X37 is for, we need to figure out why the military would need it back. Spy satellite doesn't fit the bill at all.
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