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After a Year In Orbit, US Air Force's X37-B Will Conclude Its Secret Mission

Posted by timothy on from the and-boy-is-it-tired dept.

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."

9 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Given that this is slashdot... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...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!

    1. Re:Given that this is slashdot... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Missiles will be fired from it on copyright violators. Hail our Hollywood overlords.

  2. 'NO ONE KNOWS" ???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not even the people who launched it?

    1. Re:'NO ONE KNOWS" ???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Welcome to the world of military intelligence...

    2. Re:'NO ONE KNOWS" ???? by Talderas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have a suspicion. It's a simple one too.

      This is a drone that is designed to land. When a craft exits orbit and enters our atmosphere there have been three three styles of entries. There are those which burn up. There are those like the Soyuz, Dragon, and Apollo capsules. There was a space shuttle. The drone is obviously meant to reenter like the space shuttle in some fashion.

      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.

      The Chinese have demonstrated that they have the ability to shoot down satellites so a drone spy satellite that has good maneuverability in orbit would be a plus.

      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.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  3. Re:Occam's Razor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only solution is to build a bypass, I hear the Vogons do really good rates these days.

  4. Biohazard suits.. by Knightman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    --- Reality doesn't care about your opinions, it happens anyway and if you are in the way you'll get squished.
  5. Re:Fast by camperdave · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

    Travelling through orbital space ain't like dusting crops, boy! It doesn't take any fuel at all. Look at the Moon, for example. It's been in orbit an awfully long time, but how long has it been since it was fuelled up?

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    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  6. No one knows what it's been doing all this time... by Tyrannicsupremacy · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."

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    http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png