X-37B

Mark tomorrow in your calendars because it could quite possibly be one of the biggest turning points in the history of Aerospace for this country, IMO. While we don't know exactly what the Air Force intends to use this for, the possibilities are endless. Global strike, intelligence gathering, sensor testing, satellite deployment, and the list goes on. Even if it's usage is completely benevolent, it still opens up a new realm of possibilities for what we can do in space and the timeliness with which we can do it.

http://www.inlandnewstoday.com/story.php?s=13898

CAPE CANAVERAL--The Air Force is launching the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, a brand new, unmanned spacecraft to demonstrate the military’s ability to fly into space, circle the globe for months on end, and return intact, only to fly again.

But whether the X-37 space plane is merely showing off nearly two decades of research and development or is actually a precursor to militarizing the final frontier, is far from clear since the vehicle’s payload is classified. An Air Force official won’t even say when it will return to California or where it will land. But it can “loiter” over the globe for more than nine months.

“In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back,” said Gary Payton, deputy undersecretary for the Air Force’s space programs, in a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

'Weaponization' of space?

Arms control advocates say it is pretty clear the beginning of a “weaponization of space”, precursor to a precision global strike capability that would allow the US to hover for months at a time over anywhere it chose with little anyone could do about it.

“The idea of being able to launch an unmanned research platform that can stay up there for months on end provides you with all kinds of capability, both military and civilian,” says Chris Hellman, a policy analyst with the National Priorities Project, a budget watchdog in Northampton, Mass.

He believes the fact that it is an Air Force initiative may say something about what it will ultimately used to do. And that may not sit well with others. “I can see where the prospect of having half a dozen of these things with unknown payloads circling overhead could be very troubling to people,” Mr. Hellman says.

The Air Force says the X-37 will demonstrate “various experiments” and allow “satellite sensors, subsystems, components, and associated technology” to be transported into space and back. Officials say the vehicle could change the way the Air Force operates by making space operations more “aircraft like” with a vehicle like the X-37 able to take off and later land and then fly again. (Source: csmonitor.com)

 

Terry, the big thing is that the Air Force took over this program from NASA (when funding was slashed I believe) and it immediately went black after that. I can only think of two reasons why the AF sent this program underground: A) The program is a waste of money and the AF doesn't want anyone to see taxpayer dollars being openly wasted, or B) The payloads they plan to put on this thing or some future derivatve of it will not make our enemies happy. I think the answer is B, and if any of the rumors are true (yes, they are still just rumors so they could all be wrong) then this craft could give us a strategic advantage that we haven't seen in decades.

 

And I bet you think there are aliens at Area 51

 

There are no weapons in space..he's just putting on a tin foil hat.


Also, HTV-2 was a failure..lost contact shortly after seperation from launch vehicle. There is one more test, but hopefully this doesn't spell the end of the program..

 

X-37 is back. Changed orbit 4 times and was up for 225 days...on the surface it looks like a huge success. Now it will be interesting to see how long it takes for them to launch it again.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/secret-space-plane-touches-down-as-twin-readies-for-launch/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WiredDangerRoom+%28Blog+-+Danger+Room%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

After 225 days in orbit the Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane touched down today at 1:16 am local time at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was only the second fully-automated re-entry and runway landing in the history of space flight. The Soviets achieved the first in 1988 with the robotic prototype of their Buran Space Shuttle clone.

Space plane program manager Lt. Col. Troy Giese says that “today’s landing culminates a successful mission” which “completed all the on-orbit objectives.” But the Air Force has been consistently vague about what that mission really was; for a while, military personnel claimed they didn’t even know when the X-37B was coming back to Earth.

 

You wrote the original requirements for the X-37/SMV? That's pretty cool. I would imagine it is pretty much invulnerable to any current ASAT weapons in operation/development given it's ability to maneuver (assuming that they can detect a threat and respond to it fast enough). If we had a fleet of these, it would be a huge strategic advantage in any conventional conflict where our recon satellites were in danger. They knock out one of our satellites we can potentially just slap whatever critical sensor was lost onto this thing and throw it into space as a gapfiller. Not only that, it's unpredictable which will give us a capability we haven't really had since the SR-71 was retired.

Were you involved with the HTV-2 at all? I'm looking forward to the launch of the 2nd vehicle next year...I really hope that it is a success. If we had this in the late 90s, bin Laden would be dead and we wouldn't be fighting two wars right now.

 

I know the space industry is trying to pool its resources together to find a solution to the launch problem...hopefully they can do it. It's an industry that we absolutely have to rebuild and then maintain.

I work in the defense industry myself and I love it. When I started out of college, I always thought I would only do it for a few years for the job security/experience, but I'm starting to think I could make a career out of it..I just love the technology too much, I can't imagine working for some commercial company writing software for routers or something boring like that. Plus it's way easier to explain my job to people..I can just say "sorry, can't talk about it."