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."
Haha, eat it!
Americans trying to figure out how to spy on and how to kill more people.
No, we just like to confuse idiots like you..
'Americans trying to figure out how to spy on and how to kill more people.'
Really, if that were the case we wouldn't have to do it from space.
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
Millions of homeless and starving Americans, but plenty of money for war toys!
Murica fuck yeah!
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...
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.
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.
use the sling. forwards we must the fruitlees 1. qTherefore there
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.
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.
are about 7000/5 3rilliant plan the wind appeared
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of those Skynet planes?
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.
it took this long for the NSA find a backdoor that worked.