Secretive X-37B Military Space Plane Could Land On Tuesday
schwit1 writes After twenty-two months in orbit, on its second space mission, the Air Force plans to bring the X-37B back to Earth this coming Tuesday. From the article: "The exact time and date will depend on weather and technical factors, the Air Force said in a statement released on Friday. The X-37B space plane, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, blasted off for its second mission aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 11, 2012. The 29-foot-long (9-meter) robotic spaceship, which resembles a miniature space shuttle, is an experimental vehicle that first flew in April 2010. It returned after eight months. A second vehicle blasted off in March 2011 and stayed in orbit for 15 months."
It will soon be revealed that OSX 10.10 Yosemite was developed entirely in space on the X-37B in order to provide adequate security. It's returning home now that it's about to be released.
Why else would they need to bring it back
No it has been building the Death Star that we will use to kill people. Just think being able to blast a perpetrator from space with a focused particle beam.
No, we have have the spying down fairly well. We just can't keep secrets.
America spends plenty of public and private money to feed the hungry. If anyone is actually left hungry it's not for lack of resources expended at the problem.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
That this thing has some advanced propulsion system on it that also gives it some clever control over inertia and gravity. This is the thing that cut a chunk out of that asteroid that passed near Earth, towed it into orbit, and hurled it into Russian airspace. As a demonstration. Of course, we calculated the precise mass and trajectory of said asteroid chunk so as not to kill anyone...
It's just shy.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Or are they going to be labeled a terrorist group... :)
I hope the crew of oompa loompas get back safely (ignore my sig).
Nullius in verba
Whatever the X-37B does, it seems to do it well. The USAF sends them up into space, they stay up for months or years, they do whatever they do, and they come home.
Space is the place - for robots.
Any word on the X-37c? If memory serves, it would carry a crew of four astronauts and equipment and coul really be a shuttle replacement, but I haven't heard anything about it in a couple years.
I thought it was dead, and the Air Force just didn't say anything to mess with people and make them think about what it was up to.
More than $4 billion was given to Haiti after the quake for shelter and food. Did any of that matter? Did Haiti improve much since? No, not really. That was $4 billion completely wasted and anyone who donated to that effort should feel bad. Haiti would provide more to the world, technologically and culturally, if it sank to the bottom of the ocean and became a diving resort for the rich.
After twenty-two months in orbit, on its second space mission, the Air Force plans to bring the X-37B back to Earth this coming Tuesday. [...] the Orbital Test Vehicle, blasted off for its second mission aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Dec. 11, 2012. [...] an experimental vehicle that first flew in April 2010. It returned after eight months. A second vehicle blasted off in March 2011 and stayed in orbit for 15 months."
So it first flew in April 2010, a second time in March 2011 and a second second time on Dec. 11, 2012?
I could forgive making that mistake once, but not twice inside one summary. The article itself only made the mistake once.
Or is it me who's making the mistake, along with Wikipedia? On its page it says that it's currently on its third space flight...
There is no sig.
Also, less aids... just sayin.
Could Land On Tuesday
What's wrong with landing on a runway?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I wouldn't be surprised if the USAF would grab Dream Chaser for that. It's basically a much larger version of the X-37B and even is meant to be launched on the same launcher (Atlas V) since it doesn't need that frigging huge payload shroud that the X-37B hides its wings under during ascent.
After Sierra Nevada being denied NASA money they're basically beggars who can't be too choosy anyway.
Whatever the USAF needs the X37B for, Dream Chaser would be even better suited for it and again: same launcher, same launch costs with a much better payload (both size- and mass-wise), potential for a crewed version... I wouldn't even be surprised if NASA knows that too and didn't see any good reason to support something that the USAF can (and wants to) pay for just as well.
Oh please. In my town we have two kinds of homeless: Mentally ill, and those who choose to be homeless. How do I know? Because I talk to them.
As for the mentally ill, well that is definitely screwed up. The problem is left to law enforcement, and LE cannot simply haul away some one to a mental institution when they have committed no crime.
In all other regards, your comment is completely idiotic. If you are of sound mind and not a hobo by choice, you have to be completely daft to be homeless in this country.
How much was spent on stopping the minimum wage from raising to $5 a day so that the CEO of Haynes could get a bonus?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
my sides, my fucking sides.
That is so fucking bullshit its not even funny. The definition of "plenty" is debatable, as America doesn't spent nearly 1/10th what it needs to feed its poor. Let along medical care, the big one.
The military budget, however, rarely if ever gets questioned, and we have by far the largest military spending in the world. Mabey 1/3 could probably end both homelessness and hunger, and pay for universal health care.
know why? because you don't care about homeless people or the starving. The only thing you really care about is making excuses for your masters to justify their horrendous profiteering on said defenseless poor people across the earth and in murica
Really, you should kill yourself.
Greetings troll.
You need to add another reflective fold in your tinfoil hat, you are ranting shit-filled gibberish again. The mind control rays from our glorious, glorious masters have penetrated your defences. Please adjust your tinfoil hat to protect yourself.
Quick, hurry before the next MCR-Sat makes another orbital pass!!
We spend ~$800B on Medicare/caid we spend ~$600B on defense and "war-specific spending" (aka, defense), and about $300B on welfare of various kinds. Defense spending is less than 20% of our $3.5T budget. (Social Security is the largest outlay).
Of course, you're right that we're not adequately funding Medi*, as the unfunded liability there is about $800,000 per taxpayer. Not sure what we can do about that. The total US unfunded liabilities (dominated by medicare) exceeds that value of all US assets. Confiscate all wealth in the US and it still won't cover it. Clearly, promises won't be met.
www.usdebtclock.org
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Remove 'and not a hobo by choice,' and the last sentence becomes more true. Why exclude a group of completely daft people?
Have you ever lived/worked near a rail yard? 'Hobos' are violent criminal scumbags. The only thing good about them is what they do to college hipsters who red 'on the road' one time too many.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Spy satellites aren't in space?
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of those Skynet planes?
Yep, those fat-ass, starving 'muricans... yeah, right.
yeah moron and i only spend 1/10 the amount on my socks as i do my shoes. I got an idea. next time you see a hungry person, give him a fuckin sandwich. and until then shut the fuck up.
I hope they're ready to clean up a mess, because a lot of people shit on Tuesday. I suppose they've picked Tuesday after considering all the people who die on Monday, and the traffic from the ones driving on Wednesday.
If this thing is so secretive why is it being promulgated?
it's not a robot. it's fully remotely piloted. it performs servicing of spysats, orbital maneuvers for justintime spying, and disables enemy satellites. it can and sometimes does carry an astronaut for further tinkering/disabling of sats. the chinese and russians are not happy about this bird, at all. and they have no counter to it. at least when it disables a sat it doesn't blow it to bits clouding the orbits. it's just big wirecutters on an arm.
Even ignoring the political ramifications of spending so much on defence, what justification is there for doing so? In terms of improving the lives and health of US citizens what had the most effect, invading Iraq or healthcare?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
it took this long for the NSA find a backdoor that worked.
Doesn't help when the cheapest foods here are the worst crap for you, and the good stuff requires a mint to be able to eat healthy.
Well, I happen to think a strong military presence helps us all, but I've already lost that fight, and military budgets are shrinking every year. We've already stopped being a superpower, it's just that no one else has stepped up to dominate their region yet (other than Russia, who we're used to being assholes). With defense at only 20%, future reductions give diminishing returns. Don't count on that to fix the huge problem with government overspending.
Federal revenue has come back up as a % of GDP with the recovering economy. It won't be quite so dark once we're back to 19% or GDP, but there's no tax system that has ever sustained more revenue than that, and it's simply impossible to meet our commitments even with no spending at all on defense, infrastructure, or anything but mailing checks to people. It will not end well, and if you're not saving money to help any family who depend on government assistance, you probably should be.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.