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#‎BREAKING‬ VIDEO: ISRO - Indian Space Research Organisation launches its first indigenous space shu

Actually yes.

Not according to the USAF, which hasn't used the X-37b for satellite transfer. Keep in mind that people, civilians, do track orbital bodies and based on their flight profile, can ascertain what their doing (to an extent) and track any bodies delivered by such a platform.

X-37.jpg


It has been used as a test-bed for upcoming technologies however:

A few payloads on board the OTV-4 craft have been identified.

For example, Aerojet Rocketdyne announced that its XR-5A Hall Thruster had completed initial on-orbit validation testing on board the X-37B space plane. It is also known that the vehicle carries a NASA advanced materials investigation, as well as an experimental propulsion system developed by the Air Force.

"While no more specifics have been offered about the X-37B by the Air Force since it began flying the orbital technology test bed in 2010, the overall mission seems clear: Lengthy missions allow time for seeing what such a vehicle has to offer in terms of capabilities," Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, told Space. "The military likes to have lots of arrows in its quiver."

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The mission began atop a Atlas V rocket which launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 20th, 2015. As the second flight of the second X-37B vehicle, the stated purpose of mission was to test a Hall-effect thruster (HET) – a special type of ion thruster that NASA hopes to use on future satellites. The mission had the additional purposes of testing various materials in space for NASA, as well as experimental propulsion system developed by the US Air Force.


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There's been a great deal of speculation that the X-37b was intended to act as a reusable satellite itself:

However, these aims seems incongruous will all the secrecy that surrounds the X-37B program, which is something one expects instead when dealing with the development of weapons systems. The long-terms stays in orbit also don't appear to be in keeping with this, as these would only prove useful if the intended spacecraft was meant to act as a satellite (i.e. remain in orbit for extended periods of time to collect information).

It however wasn't intended as a cheap satellite transfer vehicle as there's no follow on yet. Once the program is complete... what? There's two X-37bs, and one X-37a, and no clear follow-on yet.

In many ways the X-37B parallels the X-47B in they are test-beds with no clear successor. X-47B was supposed to develop into the UCLASS for use on US Navy Carriers:

111122_F_EM261_005.JPG


They ended up in museums instead. X-37B mirrors this because it's largely a tech demonstration platform. The economics of launching a small spacecraft just for transferring satellites don't add up either when you can just launch the satellite using the same booster - an Atlas V:

Atlas_V%28401%29_launches_with_LRO_and_LCROSS_cropped.jpg


It's not economical to launch both an X-37b and satellite when you can just use the Atlas V to launch the satellite itself. The X-37b program wasn't intended to be used as a satellite transfer vehicle, it's a test bed and has been used as such.

The Shuttle was different because it was the launch vehicle and the transfer vehicle, where as the X-37b would only be one of those things:

40_7_space_shuttle_13_f6.jpg


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Does anyone know how the RLV-TD in its current state stacks up against the X-40 demonstrator? Altitude, weight, size, I'm not looking for a d*ck measuring contest, just an overall performance comparison.

Boeing_X-40A.jpg


*I need to make a few more posts before I can offer the links I've used, so bear with me for a bit:happy:.
 
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So whats u r trying to convey?simply we have to scrap this pgm or what....

Any closup pic ?
No, I just don't understand the point in doing this at all.
An
If reducing the cost is the main goal via reusable space plane, Space Shuttle like systems aren't really that much helpful. You are still wasting 1st stage Booster/boosters and a 2nd stage (assuming Indian system is similar to Dream Chaser or X-37). Single Stage to Orbit (like Skylon) is only way you can get the cost down to less than $ 1000/kg. But like x-37, these systems have huge military implications. Like prolong Orbital Operation capacity
Question is, how long USA been experimenting with X-37?
It hasn't become operational even now
 
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very good news... am glad to witness the first steps of ISRO in this complex technology and hope to see it mater it in coming yeras..its a small but significant step. Congrats to ISRO and fellow Indians.
 
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Question is, how long USA been experimenting with X-37?
It hasn't become operational even now
Actually, that isn't when problem when you are working & investing time & money on some good things.
How long scientists worked on gravitational waves?
Humanity is working to study universe from beginning, scientists are searching for extraterrestrial life from long ago.
ISRO worked on cryogenic engine from 80s & succeeded recently.
ISRO is working on Avatar from 90s & I think in reality project started after 2003-04 will take another decade & half.
 
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Congratulations ISRO!

Projects like these are what the world of aerospace needs. As a Pakistani aerospace engineer I look at this project with great envy and wish you guys the very best for it.

Hi dear @JamD
I know couple of folks who had the privilege of working on this project and let me shed some light on this.I will be re-iterating what has been known in public domain for quite some time.Kindly bear with me.I find it strange when a lot of pakistani folks who dont have an iota of knowledge in either aerospace or any other research make such wild and ridiculous claims as Mr baap has been making for a while now. I dont know about pakistan but in rest of the world,one needs to prove the "design" in the form of TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR.
This RSTD(Re-usable Shuttle Technology Demonstrator) had all the controls as you'd find in a full blown Shuttle.The control surfaces are all fully movable! In fact optimal control strategy is used to control the shuttle subjected to usual constraints on control vector and state vector

Now once ISRO has designed it,they need to test it to gauge various parameters.It is only after this stage that "HUMAN RATING" of the launch and shuttle system will begin. The only difference between indian launcher and the chinese launcher that takes astronauts into space is the fact that chinese launchers are "human rated" whereas indian launchers are NOT(for now). And to human rate a launcher they would have to implement quadruplex redundancy in controls.i.e the launch system should be able to work flawlessly even after 4 successive failures in control system etc !It is a process that is currently going on here.
 
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/23/india-launches-10m-reusable-space-shuttle/

India launches £10m 'reusable' space shuttle
India launched its first “reusable” space shuttle on Monday morning - albeit a one-fifth scale model of the vehicle that it hopes will one day put satellites into space at rock-bottom prices.


The successful trial launch from Sriharikota, an island off the southeast coast of India, puts India’s nascent space programme in direct competition with Elon Musk’s Space X and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin in the field of low-cost, reusable launch vehicles.


india_rocket_1-large_trans++eo_i_u9APj8RuoebjoAHt0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpg

A scale version of a 'Reusable Launch Vehicle' or RLV-TD as it is readied for launch Credit: AFP/Getty Images

The 11-tonne Indian prototype is claimed to have cost just one billion rupees (£10m) to develop. By comparison, Space X’s Falcon Nine rocket costs £41m to produce. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Launch of India's first indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD is the result of the industrious efforts of our scientists. Congrats to them.”

India president Pranab Mukherjee also sent his “hearty congratulations” to the Kerala-based team of 600 scientists who built the prototype over five years.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) declared "mission accomplished” around 20 minutes after the 7.00am launch. The test launch saw a rocket booster propel the 21-foot long “Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration” (RLV-TD) model around 40 miles into orbit, before it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere at five time the speed of sound and landed safely in the Bay of Bengal.

The entire mission lasted just 770 seconds. India’s space agency aims to undercut its rivals as a low-cost option for governments and private firms seeking to put satellites and other equipment into orbit. An Indian probe launched in 2013 reached the orbit of Mars for just £50m - famously, less than the cost of the same year’s Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster Gravity (£69m).

However, its reusable spacecraft is some way behind Space X and Blue Origin, with experts describing the trial as a “a very preliminary step”. This version of the shuttle prototype will not be retrieved from the ocean.

Two further prototypes will be launched before the full, 130ft-long version - highly similar in its winged design to the US’s discontinued Space Shuttle programme - is due to be launched in around 2030. Countries including Russia and Japan, as well as the EU, also have their own reusable space vehicles, at varying levels of development.

Despite its relatively low cost, India’s £570m per year space programme has triggered controversy in a country where three-quarters of the population earns less than 5,000 rupees (£54) per month.

Britain ended direct financial assistance to India as of January 1, 2016, although the Department for International Development still provides support to the country through “technical assistance” schemes, such as paying the salaries of consultants working in government ministries.


According to the Indian government, DFID gave £20m for 2015-16. Direct assistance to India as recently as 2014 was £300m, official figures showed.

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Looks like its not just the Neighbors :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
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Hi dear @JamD
I know couple of folks who had the privilege of working on this project and let me shed some light on this.I will be re-iterating what has been known in public domain for quite some time.Kindly bear with me.I find it strange when a lot of pakistani folks who dont have an iota of knowledge in either aerospace or any other research make such wild and ridiculous claims as Mr baap has been making for a while now. I dont know about pakistan but in rest of the world,one needs to prove the "design" in the form of TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR.
This RSTD(Re-usable Shuttle Technology Demonstrator) had all the controls as you'd find in a full blown Shuttle.The control surfaces are all fully movable! In fact optimal control strategy is used to control the shuttle subjected to usual constraints on control vector and state vector

Now once ISRO has designed it,they need to test it to gauge various parameters.It is only after this stage that "HUMAN RATING" of the launch and shuttle system will begin. The only difference between indian launcher and the chinese launcher that takes astronauts into space is the fact that chinese launchers are "human rated" whereas indian launchers are NOT(for now). And to human rate a launcher they would have to implement quadruplex redundancy in controls.i.e the launch system should be able to work flawlessly even after 4 successive failures in control system etc !It is a process that is currently going on here.

I have been following this project for a long time and there are numerous very interesting aspects about this project (I don't think it is there in this scaled prototype but there was/is supposed to be a revolutionary propulsion system which harvests oxygen from the air as it ascends).

Tests like these let one learn leaps and bounds on numerous key technologies at the same time: controls, propulsion, materials, atmospherics to name a few

And don't worry about trolls, let the results speak for themselves.
 
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I have been following this project for a long time and there are numerous very interesting aspects about this project (I don't think it is there in this scaled prototype but there was/is supposed to be a revolutionary propulsion system which harvests oxygen from the air as it ascends).

Tests like these let one learn leaps and bounds on numerous key technologies at the same time: controls, propulsion, materials, atmospherics to name a few

And don't worry about trolls, let the results speak for themselves.
Is it possible to seperate oxygen from atmosphere with in this shortspan of flight?
 
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(I don't think it is there in this scaled prototype but there was/is supposed to be a revolutionary propulsion system which harvests oxygen from the air as it ascends).

Is it possible to seperate oxygen from atmosphere with in this shortspan of flight?

Pardon my ignorance, but isn't that SCRAMJET all about? An air-breathing rocket engine?

If I am not wrong, I think that is going to be tested in one of the several phases.
 
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Is it possible to seperate oxygen from atmosphere with in this shortspan of flight?
Any air breathing internal combustion engine "Harvests oxygen from air " . What's so new about it?
Making mountain out of mole hill Is India's speciality
 
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