X-37B Successfully Launched (April 23, 2010)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
There's more fun space news this week. The US Air Force launched the X-37B space plane yesterday on its first flight. Described by some as a "mystery" ship, the new shuttle is officially tasked with researching a new platform for experiments and reusable spacecraft. The current design can be remotely controlled in orbit for up to nine months and then return to Earth.





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"If these technologies on the vehicle prove to be as good as we estimate, it will make our access to space more responsive, perhaps cheaper, and push us in the vector toward being able to react to warfighter needs more quickly," said Gary Payton, the Air Force deputy undersecretary for space Programs.

"This launch helps ensure that our warfighters will be provided the capabilities they need in the future," said Col. André Lovett, the 45th Space Wing vice commander and launch decision authority for the mission. "The 45th Space Wing (members are) proud to launch this historic mission and continue our commitment to assuring access to the high frontier."
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Original update published on April 23, 2010
 
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Gosh, I wonder if it's amazing mystery role has something to do with reconnaissance satellites, the one thing the military has cared about in space in the last half a century.
 
If only there were some way anyone on Earth could monitor whether or not it's deploying or repairing a spy satellite.
 
From what I've read, the point of the thing is that it is capable of changing its vector while in space, something that shuttles can't do. The reason that the launch facilities for the space shuttle were built at Vandenberg AFB was so that the shuttle could make northern launches and place satellites into polar orbit, where they'd overfly the Soviet Union, China and North Korea. In any event, launches from Vandenberg never happened, so NASA and the Air Force used repurposed ICBMs to launch them from Florida. The problem there was that it took an enormous amount of fuel to change vectors after an eastern launch, reducing the possible size of a satellite.

X-37B is capable of being launched and changing vectors without needing prohibitive amounts of fuel, increasing the possible size of satellites in polar orbit, so we can continue to spend billions of dollars observing a threat that hasn't actually existed since 1992.
 
Vinman said:
It's just a shame that we had to militarize this thing.
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I'm less worried about that. It's still mostly a test platform that's expanding out aerospace base. People that were making F-22 wings last year could be making 737 wings today and working on a new space plane next year. There's a lot of bouncing around within aerospace, and the technical knowledge needed to make this thing will definitely find its way into other projects over the next 5-10 years.
 
It just hit me; the 45th was the volunteer bunch out of StarLancer. Maybe Chris Roberts knew something we didn't?
 
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