Secretive (?) Air Force space plane

[sky otter]

 
can't be too secret if it's on msnbc



Secretive Air Force space plane nears orbital record
Day 270 of flight by X-37B made feasible by deployable solar array power system

The secretive X-37B robotic space plane is about to set its own space-endurance record on a hush-hush project operated by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.

The craft, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle-2, was boosted into Earth orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 5. On Wednesday, the X-37B spacecraft will mark its 270th day of flight — a lifetime in space that was heralded in the past as the vehicle's upper limit for spaceflight by project officials.



Karl Tate, Space.com
The Space.com infographic depicts the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, an unmanned space test vehicle made for the U.S. Air Force. "It's still up there," U.S. Air Force Maj. Tracy Bunko of the Air Force Press Desk at the Pentagon, told Space.com, noting that project officials planned for a 9- month-plus mission, "so we're close to that now."

The X-37B's staying power is made feasible by its deployable solar array power system, unfurled from the vehicle's cargo bay.

Built by Boeing's Phantom Works, the X-37B spacecraft is about 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide. It has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.
.....
As for the future of the X-37B series, derivatives of the vehicle have been proposed as possibilities to fly cargo and even crew to the International Space Station.
.....
Grantz said, for one, the X-37B as designed now can be flown to the space station and supply cargo services by docking to the facility's common berthing mechanism. A Boeing roadmap, he added, includes an X-37C winged vehicle, as well as a version able to carry up to seven astronauts into Earth orbit.

article here
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45484286/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/secretive-air-force-space-plane-nears-orbital-record/

[1Worldwatcher]

Actually, it was quite secretive with this craft. It is the predecessor to the space possibilities after NASA had been deemed as an unworthy form of travel to the SS launches.
There have been very many amateur and professional astronomer's seeing this vehicle flying by the face of the moon thinking it was an alien craft, for no other better explanation.
Too be honest with you, Zorgon was one of the first people to turn me on too this event being factual, shortly there of, the release was made of it being a new space program realized.
If this form of craft holds up to their expectation's, there will be colonies on the moon that will be openly talked about. Then the finding's will be once again, kept from the public as too the why's we are there Only time will tell for sure, but this was a very top secret scenario.

[burntheships]

The X37B Landing video by Boeing


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cvrjzoHZg4&feature=plcp

[sky otter]

X-37B, Air Force's Secret Space Plane, Lands In California After Mysterious Mission
Posted: 06/16/2012 11:27 am Updated: 06/17/2012 12:46 am

By: Mike Wall

Published: 06/16/2012 10:37 AM EDT on SPACE.com

The U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane finally returned to Earth Saturday (June 16), wrapping up a mysterious mission that lasted more than a year in orbit.

The unmanned X-37B spacecraft, also known as Orbital Test Vehicle-2 (OTV-2), glided back to Earth on autopilot, touching down at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:48 a.m. PDT (8:48 a.m. EDT, 1248 GMT). The landing brought to an end the X-37B program's second-ever spaceflight, a mission that lasted more than 15 months with objectives that remain shrouded in secrecy.

Air Force officials announced the X-37B space plane's successful landing in a brief statement posted on the Vandenberg website and emailed to reporters.

"Team Vandenberg has put in over a year's worth of hard work in preparation for this landing and today we were able to see the fruits of our labor," said Col. Nina Armagno, 30th Space Wing commander at Vandenberg. "I am so proud of our team for coming together to execute this landing operation safely and successfully." [Photos: Air Force's 2nd Secret X-37B Mission]

The X-37B stayed in orbit for 469 days this time, more than doubling the 225 days its sister ship, OTV-1, spent in space last year on the program's maiden flight. Officials at Vandenberg said the spacecraft conducted "on-orbit experiments" during its mission. The landing window for the X-37B actually opened on June 11, and was expected to close on Monday (June 18).

An extended, mysterious mission

OTV-2 launched aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on March 5, 2011. The space plane was designed to stay aloft for 270 days, but the Air Force kept it flying well beyond that milestone in a mission that officials recently called a "spectacular success."

"With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development," said X-37B program manager Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre in today's statement. "The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs. We're proud of the entire team's successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion."

Exactly what the spacecraft, which is built by Boeing's Phantom Works division, was doing up there for so long is a secret. The details of the X-37B's mission, which is overseen by the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office, are classified, as is its payload.

This secrecy has led to some speculation, especially online and abroad, that the X-37B could be a space weapon of some sort — perhaps a sophisticated satellite-killer. Some experts also suspect that the vehicle may be an orbital spy platform.




This size chart shows how the Boeing-built X-37B robot space plane compares to NASA's space shuttle, a larger version of the spacecraft called the X-37C and an Atlas 5 rocket.


The Air Force, however, has worked to tamp down such speculation, stressing repeatedly that the X-37B isn't doing anything nefarious hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface.

"This is a test vehicle to prove the materials and capabilities, to put experiments in space and bring them back and check out the technologies," Richard McKinney, the Air Force's deputy undersecretary for space programs, said shortly after OTV-1 landed in December 2010.

"My words to others who might read anything else into that is, 'Just listen to what we're telling you,'" McKinney added. "This is, pure and simple, a test vehicle so we can prove technologies and capabilities."

The X-37B looks a bit like NASA's recently retired space shuttle, but it's far smaller. The X-37B is about 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 m) wide, with a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. Two X-37B vehicles could fit inside the payload bay of a space shuttle.

The spacecraft's orbital longevity is enabled by its solar array, which generates power after deploying from its payload bay.

Cargo and crew carrier?

While the X-37B currently flies only hush-hush missions for the Defense Department, its spaceflight role may be expanded in the future.

In its current state, the vehicle could fly cargo missions to the International Space Station, docking to the orbiting outpost's common berthing port, Boeing officials have said.

Boeing is also looking into building a larger variant of the spacecraft called the X-37C, which could ferry up to six astronauts to the space station. The X-37C would be 65 to 80 percent bigger than the X-37B.

Originally, NASA used the X-37B as an experimental test bed until funding for the project ran out in 2004. The vehicle then passed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and it was ultimately turned over to the Air Force in 2006.

Vandenberg officials said the next X-37B mission will launch sometime later this year, most likely during autumn. That mission will use the first X-37B to fly, OTV-1, lofting it to orbit for a second flight.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.


links to additional stories at link

•Photos: X-37B Space Plane - The Orbital Test Vehicle
•Secretive Space Plane: Meet the X-37B | Video
•Top 10 Space Weaponshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/x37b-air-force-secret-plane-lands_n_1602434.html

[sky otter]

the shape of this looks alot like what flew over the house the other day...
exact shape..tube like..small fixed wing dead center ..but what i saw didn't have a tail fin
and it was moving slow and silent..from east to south

no the picture didn't come out..by the time i ran in and got the camera
it was headin away from me


ah hell here.. it was point and shoot  and only shows that something crossed the sky..sigh
that was 6-19-12 8:21 pm est

[sky otter]

 

ok..this deserves lots of laughter..i think i have found out what my mystery sky thing was
no longer un identified...and i didn't have to confess either..but i can handle the laughter
it's worth finding out just what it was... i think
Stan Gordon has the info below



http://www.theswervemagazine.com/StanGordon.html
June 10, 2012-Blimp Over Greensburg, PA



Did you see something strange passing over the Greensburg, PA area around 5 PM on Sunday afternoon? What you saw was probably the Direct TV blimp that has a relatively quiet engine system that was passing over the Greensburg area and moving from east to west. Quite often observations of blimps have led to UFO reports since they can look unusual, especially in the distance and from different angles.


hahahahaha what can i say    

[zorgon]

Well no worries... imagine if you had seen THIS one

Locomo Sky Thermoplan

A thermoplan is a saucer-shaped blimp of sorts, with one key difference: instead of being filled entirely with helium, a thermoplan also contains air that can be heated or cooled by its engines to provide dynamic lift, like a hot air balloon. The saucer profile allows it to stay stable even in high winds, and the design is scalable to carry up to 600 tons of cargo or 11,000 (!) passengers. A Russian company has had at least one prototype thermoplan in the air since 2009, and they're reportedly building a fleet of them for heavy cargo lifting.

http://www.roswellufomuseum.com/research/ufotopics/earthmadeflyingsaucers.html

[kdog]

Yeah,I wonder what they are planning with the x-37b.

But this is the one that scares me.....

The x-47

The Northrop Grumman X-47B is an American demonstration unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) which first flew in 2011. The X-47 project began as part of DARPA's J-UCAS program, and is now part of the United States Navy's UCAS-D (Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration) program, which aims to create a carrier-based unmanned aircraft. Unlike the similar Boeing X-45, the development of the aircraft's predecessor, the X-47A Pegasus, was company-funded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_X-47B



Bombs away!

[zorgon]

But this is the one that scares me.....
The x-47A Pegasus

Yes Be Afraid... be VERY afraid   

LSWONE tells me they named that one after us





He also told me they have this poster in the lunchroom at Dryden



Those guys at Dryden/Edward are a bunch of characters   He says ke likes taking people out to photograph the invisible airplanes   

[zorgon]

But my Favorite is the X45C

[LSWONE]

Yes Be Afraid... be VERY afraid   

LSWONE tells me they named that one after us





He also told me they have this poster in the lunchroom at Dryden



Those guys at Dryden/Edward are a bunch of characters   He says ke likes taking people out to photograph the invisible airplanes   

Looks like it will be a late dinner tonight.

About 10:50 PM.