Boeing Moving X-37B Operations To the Kennedy Space Center

Posted by timothy on Friday January 3, 2014 @07:12PM from the so-they-can-hang-out-with-the-spacex-guys dept.

schwit1 writes "A spy plane used by the U.S. Air Force is about to get a new home: a garage at Kennedy Space Center that once housed NASA orbiters during the space shuttle era. The move was announced Friday by Boeing, the Chicago-based company that built the X-37B orbital test vehicle and is in charge of repairing the spacecraft whenever it returns to Earth. Previously, Boeing had refurbished the 29-foot-long spacecraft at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the company decided to relocate its fix-up shop in Florida, where the vehicle now launches."

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Re:too many $ by phrostie · 2014-01-04 02:36 · Score: 3, Interesting

my guess would be they are going for the lower latitudes.
launching from higher latitudes requires more fuel for the same orbit.
so either they are lifting a heavier load or going for a higher orbit.
to move just to save money would be totally out of character for the U.S. Gov.