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SpaceX Will Launch Secretive X-37B Spaceplane's Next Mission (latimes.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: SpaceX will launch the Air Force's X-37B experimental spaceplane later this year, in the military's latest vote of confidence in the Elon Musk-led space company. This will be the first time SpaceX has launched the uncrewed robotic vehicle. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., has launched the spaceplane's previous four missions atop one of its Atlas V rockets. The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which is responsible for the X-37B's experimental operations, said it was "very excited" for the fifth flight, which will test how special electronics and heat pipes will fare during a long-duration space mission. The Air Force has two of the spaceplanes, which look like miniature versions of the space shuttle and are known officially as X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles. The first X-37B was launched in 2010.
Fucking with satellites of other nations?
Surely the USAF self insures?
The USA managed to build and launch an airliner sized crewed reusable spaceplane called the shuttle in the 1970s.
At huge expense and suspect reliability. The shuttle never lived up to the expectations for the project. It was too expensive and complex. The shuttle wasn't in principle a bad idea but the final design was something we did because we could, not because it was the best approach. We probably should have done something more along the lines of the Apollo Applications Program had we known what we know now.
I'd love to know whats so cutting edge about the X35 that they're trying to keep this midget version of the shuttle secret.
Probably little or nothing to do with the external parts of the craft. Could be weapons, surveillance equipment, or it might just be a test bed for classified technology. It's staying in orbit for really long periods of time so that's probably a hint. Lots of potential reasons why it's all hush hush.
Indeed. And I'm sure they have quite a bit of money wrapped up in the X-37B.
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So what exactly does it do then?
When they launched the spy satellite, it was the best launch coverage (streamed on youtube) to date, in my opinion. Rockets go up all the time, it is rockets coming back down which is unusual and special. Because of the payload, the coverage of that mission didn't look at stage II at all, so we got better coverage of the booster (stage I) return, including continuous launch-to-landing ground telescope images of the booster, plus continuous video from the booster. I have high hopes that this launch will be similar.
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It can stay in orbit for months to validate technology which cannot be tested any other way.
It soft-lands so that the experiments can be controlled and validated
It can be launched on any EELV compliant launcher
It doesn't cost >$1B to refurbish for each launch.
I don't recall all of these existing 40 years ago in a single vehicle...
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It's the US Military - cost is not a factor.
What excites the USAF brass is SpaceX turnaround. Musk is targeting 24 hrs for a Falcon 9b5 turnaround; with any extra capacity he could put another X37B into orbit with a few days' notice. That is tremendously advantageous for space soldiers and spies.
My God, it's Full of Source!
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Do the drop the X designation?? Almost a decade if flight, I think it passed the test , and what would its new designator be ?
It appears to be a space shuttle, scaled for squirrels. And it's classified.
So, obviously, it's OFFICIALLY a Secret Squirrel Program. . . .
And of course, because you can find everything on the internet...
We gotta go to a crappy town where I'm a hero.
mr Musk should leak all the details of the X37B cuz hes a computer person
Apart from how much it weighs and the details of what orbit it's heading into, I doubt anybody at SpaceX actually knows what the X37B actually does, including Musk. One could speculate I suppose, but I'm sure the USAF is keeping the actual mission details to themselves...
It's a contract launch that says... Here are the launch specifications, weight, center of gravity, size and on pad environmental requirements, here is the orbit we want and when we want it launched. Finally, here is the schedule of payments and the initial check for you to get started...
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I really cannot imagine this. Whatever secret things this does in orbit, it cannot really hide it's orbit (see http://scalsky.com/ and it cannot change it's orbit by much, so any satellite owner can easily tell if their satellite is at any risk of being approached.
Plus a ground based station is probably MUCH closer to a LEO satellite than the X-37B can reach, and would have far more power to interfere.
I don't think it is interfering with space objects, but rather observing the ground.
It doesn't matter what docking parts it has! Stop being a bigot. It should be able to go into the hanger it identifies with.
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The shuttle was never used to its full capabilities.
Disagree. The problem with the shuttle was that it's capabilities weren't what they needed to be. Technically it was reusable but so much work and expense went into each refurbishment that they may as well have not bothered. The shuttle was supposed to reduce cost to orbit and it did nothing of the sort. The fact that it was capable of bringing items back from orbit is a minor detail which misses the big picture. The shuttle wasn't economically capable of solving the space junk problem which is really the only common reason to bring most items back from orbit aside from science experiments and astronauts. Once you make getting to orbit economical THEN it is worth worrying about bringing stuff back economically. The shuttle design was simply not capable of doing that economically.
Nothing in the AAP could have safely brought a satellite back from orbit as the shuttle managed on 4 occasions.
I said "along the lines of the AAP", as in something similar. It didn't have to be that program specifically. It's an example of a type of program that would have been more likely to succeed. It's all moot at this point and SpaceX (and some others) are finally making progress on the problems. It's just a shame we wasted so much time and money on the shuttle.
X37-B does have cross-range capability, but not enough to evade people tracking it from the ground. http://www.heavens-above.com/ will show its location and orbit shortly after launch.
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