Secret Spaceplane, Mystery Mission
Secret space plane has been up in orbit for nearly 500 days.
The Air Force still isn't saying just what exactly the X-37B is up to — or when it's coming back to Earth
The Air Force's secret space plane has been up in orbit for nearly 500 days—a space endurance record. But nearly a year and a half into the mission, the Pentagon still won't say what the X-37B is doing up there, or when it might come back.
The U.S. Air Force boosted the robotic X-37B atop the nose of an Atlas-5 rocket in December 2012. Since then it's orbited the Earth thousands of times, overflying such interesting places as North Korea and Iran.
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Similar to the Space Shuttle in appearance, the diminutive X-37B is about a quarter the size of the old shuttles. But there are major differences. Lacking a crew, the spacecraft has no cockpit windows. The X-37B has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.
And while the original Space Shuttle could stay in orbit for up to 17 days—a limitation largely due to the needs of the crew—the first X-37B mission, OTV-1, spent 225 days in space under the guidance of Air Force space flight controllers at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. The second mission, OTV-2, handily doubled that number, clocking 469 days in orbit. OTV-3 is currently at 482 days and counting.
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Eventually—nobody knows when—the pudgy space plane will glide back down to Earth like the Space Shuttle it resembles, rolling to a stop on an Air Force runway in California.
The X-37B began as a NASA project to build a small, unmanned space plane. NASA handed the project over to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2004, but after budgetary problems the program was transferred to the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which continues to manage the X-37B program. Boeing's Phantom Works division built two of the X-37B spacecraft.
http://news.yahoo.com/secret-spaceplane-mystery-mission-094500663--politics.html
Boeing to Use Former Space Shuttle Hangar for Secret Space Plane
(http://i.space.com/images/i/000/035/708/i02/x37b-space-plane-shuttle-hangar.jpg?1389024754)
Space shuttle Atlantis backs out of Orbiter Processing Facility-1 (OPF-1) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2011. The building will now be used by Boeing to service the U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane.
Credit: collectSPACE.com/Robert Z. Pearlman
A former NASA space shuttle hangar will serve as the new home and servicing facility for a fleet of secretive military space planes.
The Boeing Company announced on Friday (Jan. 3) it will begin converting Orbiter Processing Facility-1 (OPF-1) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to support the U.S. Air Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). Built by Boeing's Phantom Works, the winged X-37B space plane resembles in some ways a smaller version of NASA's shuttle with a 15-foot (4.5 m.) wingspan.
The move to use OPF-1 will "enable the U.S. Air Force to efficiently land, recover, refurbish, and re-launch" the 29-foot-long (8.8 m.), reusable unmanned spacecraft, Boeing officials said in a statement.
http://www.space.com/24168-secret-x37b-space-plane-boeing-hangar.html
5 Most Secret Military Aircraft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ0I773sFbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ0I773sFbw
The KITTEH is out of the SACK--- LOCKHEED MARTIN goes on record
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/forum/index.php?topic=6574.msg91693#msg91693
Nice additions "Z"
It just indicates a few admitted egs of what Secret stuff they have !
Id like to see the list of the stuff they won't tell us about ...
Like the Music to this video !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ0I773sFbw
I wonder is that real footage of the Aurora at 4 min 39 secs
I cant recall if it has been officially filmed and acknowledged...
I know that there has been Satellite filming of something flying from Area 51 to China at 8000 MPH...almost Mach 12 .on the TV program the "UFOs the secret evidence" by Nick Cook...
He says its not officially ever been confirmed..
This youtube film shows part of it with ref to Aurora..
"Black projects Does the Aurora exist." see about 30 secs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1UApZnpJFU