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Classified X-37B Space Plane Breaks Space Longevity Record
itwbennett (1594911) writes "A little-known U.S. space plane quietly broke its own space endurance record this week as its current unmanned mission surpassed 469 days in space. What it was doing up there for so long is a secret closely held by the Air Force, but Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an authority on satellites and launches, thinks it's serving a similar role as the space shuttle by carrying a science or intelligence payload. 'I believe it's testing some kind of experimental sensor for the National Reconnaissance Office; for example, a hyperspectral imager, or some new kind of signals intelligence package,' said McDowell. 'The sensor was more successful than expected, so the payload customer asked the X-37 folks to keep the spacecraft in orbit longer.'"
Space longevity record"
Theres been (unmanned) stuff up in space for longer than a few years before, what record?
How about those Voyagers now in (or not) interstellar space? Their missions have beem over 30 years and still going
Negotiating First Contact?
Have you noticed that not too many years ago, Americans would hear about some neat new technical military thing and think, "Wow, I'm glad that's on OUR side!" And now, they just expect it to be used for domestic purposes.
Maybe. Probably not.
"The space agency solicited proposals in 1998 for projects that would push the boundaries of space development and exploration, and later awarded Boeing a $137 million contract for the X-37"
That's a bargain. Most commercial passenger jets cost more than that.
I'd say there's even money that it's essentially a remote control X-Wing fighter.
It's a scaled down version of what was originally a concept for a next generation shuttle. It's /5 scale from the original design (this all comes from wikipedia)
I can't imagine it *not* having some sort of weapon or ability to grab/move anything it wants.
I think it's very important to have these for security reasons. We're to the point where a criminal kingpin could afford to surreptitiously (Russians) put up some sort of ballistic projectile disguised in a different payload or launched independently. Even a crude space weapon can ravage a downtown.
These drones rock IMHO.
Thank you Dave Raggett
...it's failed and they can't get it down.....
The difference between now, and before snowden is simple. Before Snowden, the majority of the public thought the government and politicians were up to no good, and would bend the spirit of the law and constitution to suit their purposes. After Snowden we now know that the Government and politicians think their goals are just and righteous enough that they feel justified in just flat out ignoring the law and the constitution. That's an entirely different game.
Civil expenditure vs military expenditure. It's sad that it takes a military budget to do stuff, when a civilian space agency could do just as well.
The reality is that when asked the question 'why are you doing this?', the answer in one case will be a fuzzy 'important defence stuff' and people will stop asking questions, while in the other "researching technology for future manned space flight" and then people will start questioning it even more and each want to be a stake holder in the budget.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Take a look at this, and it's back from 2011. Boeing is calling a 6 person X-37C, yet I believe that the Air Force probably already has a flight-capable (and probably tested) one or two man "modual" that can put in the experiment bay. After watching Astrospies on PBS, someday we will probably find a couple of space suits stuffed in a dark closet somewhere in 30 years, with an X-37 mission flag, Air Force officers involved in "training"...there's no way the AF will give up US-based manned space travel, even if just for intelligence and access to the ISS.
Ah, the hopeless naivete of someone unfamiliar with government contracting for military and aerospace programs.
The first four years of the program actually cost $192 million, though to be fair Boeing "contributed" a nominal $67 million of that, presumably with the expectation of future contracts if the program continued. (Not if it was successful, necessarily, just as long as it continued. And the $67 million probably included significant in-kind contributions of labour and materials, where Boeing would 'bill' itself market rates for parts and labour, rather than their actual internal cost.)
In 2002, Boeing picked up a subsequent $301 million government contract; their investment paid off quite handsomely. In 2004, the X-37 became a classified DARPA project, so we don't really know how much more it cost over the last decade, but I would be shocked if the total program cost didn't run into ten figures. The first X-37 mission didn't occur until 2010.
So no--not a 'bargain'. Two modest-sized, unmanned, robotic space vehicles (space drones) at a quarter billion each, plus whatever secret development costs accrued between 2004 and 2010. It's a neat technical achievement, and putting drones in space is certainly less costly than putting warm bodies up there, but don't delude yourself by thinking that it's cheap.
~Idarubicin
The government gives, but not in the way you think.
The government provides the entire framework for an orderly society, without which we would not have roads, air travel, financial intercourse, or a level of personal, financial, and societal stability and safety every single person in a first world country takes for granted every day.
That's not to say that the don't screw some things up, or misplace priorities, or have management issues - but without government there would be anarchy.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
They do? Eliminate them, saves heaps of money!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.