USA X-37B robot spaceplane returns to orbit tomorrow

[TruthSeeker]

Mystery X-37B robot spaceplane returns to orbit tomorrow

By Anna Leach • Get more from this author

Posted in Science, 10th December 2012 17:58 GMT

The United States Air Force will mount the third mission into space by its small space-shuttle lookalikes, the X-37Bs (once memorably dubbed "secret space warplanes" by the Iranian government) tomorrow if all goes to plan.

The third Orbital Test Vehicle mission, aka OTV-3, will see the same X-37B which flew the inaugural OTV mission take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, just after 1pm EST, contractor United Launch Alliance announced.

The X-37Bs are prototype space planes that, in the vague words of the American military, supports "space experimentation". It is understood the goals of the X-37B project include aiding the development of reusable spacecraft and to test new technologies for long-duration space flight.

What distinguishes a space plane from other spacecraft is its ability to return to Earth and land on a runway. The wings, wheels and propulsion kit needed to successfully touch down in such a way make the planes significantly heavier, more expensive and harder to control than other types of craft, which either don't return in useable condition or drop in by parachute.

A rendering of the X-37B plane

The Air Force keeps the details of the space planes strictly classified, meaning that there has been no public justification of these expensive experiments, and the life and times of the X-37B planes remain something of a mystery.

The second super-secret space shuttle OTV2 returned to Earth in June after 469 days in space.

It was rumoured to be hovering over China quietly slurping in wireless data as well as other wild speculation about its possible purpose. It's likely we won't hear many more hard facts about the third plane either.

In general we here on the Reg space desk consider that the X-37B is really more or less what the US Air Force say it is - a platform for trying out new secret technologies in space quickly without the expense and delay of building a dedicated satellite, and without the downsides of capsule parachute landings which naturally would tend to involve some risk of one's top-secret spysat tech being recovered by someone else.

However the craft's shuttle-like wings do suggest that it could potentially be used for more interesting missions, which we have analysed previously here.


See previous X-37B threads here: http://www.defence.pk/forums/americas/209940-us-x-37b-third-launch-october.html

 

[TruthSeeker]

Here's What We Know About The Secretive X-37B Space Plane Launching Tomorrow

Leonard David, Space.com | Dec. 10, 2012, 10:49 AM | 7,381 | 5

The secretive U.S. Air Force X-37B robotic space plane has been cleared to lift off Tuesday (Dec. 11).

The X-37B vehicle and its cargo bay packed with a classified payload is set to make the third mission of the program. Also called Orbital Test Vehicle-3, or OTV-3, the unpiloted craft is slated to be hurled into Earth orbit by an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) at 1:03 p.m. EST (1803 GMT).

There's an interesting angle to the upcoming mission. This third flight will use the same X-37B spacecraft that flew the first test flight, the OTV-1 mission, back in 2010.

That maiden voyage of the miniature space plane lasted a little over 224 days, orbiting Earth from April 22, 2010 to Dec. 3 of that year, and finally landing on autopilot at a specially prepared runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. [Photos: U.S. Military's X-37B Space Plane]

A different X-37B vehicle made a similar Vandenberg touchdown this past June 16, after staying in orbit 469 days on its OTV-2 mission.

Accident investigation

The OTV-3 flight had been delayed for several months due to an accident investigation board looking into why a Delta 4 rocket's RL-10B-2 upper stage engine did not perform as expected on Oct. 4 during a launch that successfully orbited a Global Positioning System 2F-3 satellite.

The Atlas 5 that will hurl the OTV-3 into Earth orbit utilizes a different model of the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL-10 engine. However, per standard processes, the Air Force reviews all flight data to determine readiness to press forward with the next liftoff.

According to launch service provider United Launch Alliance (ULA), which makes the Atlas 5 and Delta 4, a thorough flight clearance process was executed and all "credible crossover implications" from the Delta anomaly to the OTV-3 Atlas vehicle and engine system have been thoroughly addressed and mitigated. That work culminated in the flight clearance decision for the OTV-3 launch. The investigation into the Delta rocket flight data anomaly continues.

Flight clearance

The accident investigation board concluded that a fuel leak occurred in a specific area of the interior of the thrust chamber, and that this leak started during the first engine start sequence during the October launch.

The anomaly investigation involves senior industry technical advisors, along with Air Force and NASA customers, explained Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president of mission operations, on the ULA website.

"We thank the OTV customer for their patience and participation throughout the flight clearance process for this important mission," Sponnick said.

ULA is a 50-50 joint venture owned by Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company.

Space test platform

The X-37B program is being run by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. The two space planes in the fleet — which are 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 — were built by Boeing Government Space Systems.

The Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office has a mission of expediting the development and fielding of select Department of Defense combat support and weapon systems by leveraging defense-wide technology development efforts and existing operational capabilities.

According to an Air Force factsheet, the Rapid Capabilities Office is working on the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle "to demonstrate a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the United States Air Force."

While both previous X-37B missions touched down at Vandenberg, the Air Force has been reviewing the prospect of landing future flights at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, next door to the Cape Canaveral launch site. Returning the robotic space plane to the KSC landing strip — which was used by NASA's now-retired space shuttle fleet — would lower costs, because the vehicle wouldn't have to be transported back from California to Florida after each mission.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.

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Read more: X-37B Space Plane Launching On Dec. 11 - Business Insider

 

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Lots of words that say zero about what we are interested in.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Air Force's mysterious X-37B launched

By Todd Halvorson, Florida Today, Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:24 AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The military's mysterious mini-shuttle launched today on a classified mission that has captured the imaginations of everyone from amateur satellite trackers to anti-nuclear protestors and potential military adversaries Russia and China.

Built by Boeing's secretive Phantom Works in Huntington Beach, Calif., the Air Force X-37B spacecraft is rumored to be everything from a space bomber to a satellite-killer or a test-bed for advanced spy satellite sensors.

The Air Force is revealing little.

"Inquiring minds want to know, right?" said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a leading source of defense, space and intelligence information.

"But posing this question presumes that (the mini-shuttle) does serve some specific purpose. And I think that might be imposing greater rationality on the whole thing than is warranted."

Birthed by NASA in 1999, the project shifted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2004, and then to the U.S. Air Force in 2006. Tuesday's launch of the winged vehicle is the X-37B's third mission.

Pike thinks the program exists, well, because it exists.

"To the extent that it does have a purpose, I think its purpose is to keep the Chinese guessing as to what the purpose is."

The Union of Concerned Scientists holds a similar view. The nonprofit group says that bureaucratic inertia "may help keep the space-plane concept alive."

"In a time of tightening budgets, the administration and Congress should take a close look at the X-37B program and figure out why they're spending money on a program that has no persuasive rationale," said Laura Grego, a senior scientist with the organization.

Here's what we do know about the mini-shuttle that launched atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida:

-- About one-fourth of the size of a NASA shuttle orbiter, the X-37B is a reusable, robotic vehicle.

-- The unmanned spacecraft has no crew cabin, no life support systems, and neither the Air Force nor NASA has indicated a desire to upgrade it for human spaceflight.

-- From stem to stern, the spaceship is 29 feet in length, about the size of a small school bus.

-- The solar-powered spaceship is designed to remain in orbit up to 270 days. The second X-37B mission flew for 469 days.

In comparison, shuttles were powered by fuel cells that limited its orbital flights. The longest shuttle mission lasted 17 days, 15 hours and 53 minutes.

-- The project's total cost is unknown because the budget has been classified since the X-37B project was transferred to DARPA in 2004.

What is known: NASA, Boeing and the Air Force spent $208 million ($125 million from NASA, $67 million from Boeing with the Air Force chipping in $16 million) on initial development between 1998 and the end of 2002. In November 2002, Boeing was awarded a $301 million contract to continue development.

-- The X-37B's most unique capability: It can re-enter Earth's atmosphere and land autonomously -- with no pilot.

Boeing built two X-37B spacecraft for orbital flight. The first launched from Cape Canaveral in April 2010, the second blasted off in March 2011. Both of those missions concluded with landings at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Air Force is also looking at consolidating landing, refurbishment and launch operations on the Space Coast.

So, what exactly does the X-37B do?

And what doesn't it do?

China and other adversaries "see it as yet another example of the U.S. developing space weapons, contrary to the U.S. public position -- that it doesn't have any space weapons," said Brian Weeden, technical adviser to Secure World Foundation, which promotes peaceful uses of outer space.

"There is no proof to support their claims, but that doesn't really matter. Just as some in the U.S. have misrepresented or exaggerated Russian and Chinese programs to advance certain political positions, Russia and China are going to do the same."

Dave Webb, chairman of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, says the X-37B "is part of the Pentagon's effort to develop the capability to strike anywhere in the world with a conventional warhead in less than an hour."

But other analysts say the X-37B is no space bomber.

"Absolutely not," said Weeden, a former Air Force official with experience in space and ballistic missile operations. "The laws of physics are a pretty harsh mistress and make such systems impractical and not very useful."

Some question whether the X-37B itself might be a delivery system for a nuclear bomb -- whether the spaceship is intended to re-enter Earth's atmosphere on autopilot and dive-bomb an enemy target.

That's highly unlikely. Just like NASA's shuttle orbiters, the X-37B is an unpowered glider during reentry.

"It would be a very expensive, sitting duck for any air-defense system in the world," Weeden said.

Some surmise the X-37B is a satellite-tracker or a satellite-killer. Or both.

But the U.S. military knows the X-37B is "a very high-interest object" for amateur satellite observers and military officials in Russia and China.

So, then, what is the X-37's mission?

Gary Payton, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Programs and a former shuttle astronaut, says the spacecraft is primarily a technology demonstrator and a platform for space experiments.

"The primary objectives of the X-37 are (developing) a new batch of reusable technologies for America's future, plus learning and demonstrating the concept of operations for reusable experimental payloads," Payton told reporters prior to the X-37B's inaugural launch.

"Take a payload up, spend up to 270 days on orbit. They'll run experiments to see if the new technology works, then bring it all back home and inspect it to see what was really going on in space," Payton said.

The first X-37B mission was a 224-day shakedown cruise -- a flight primarily aimed at "proving that the vehicle itself can get up in space, do a job, get back down," Payton said.

Then "the most important demonstration" would be determining whether the vehicle could be prepped for another flight rapidly, and at low cost, he said.

Objectives of the second flight -- the first flight of the Air Force's second X-37B vehicle -- probably were similar.

Weeden said the spacecraft could serve as test-beds for advanced sensors for spy satellites.

"I think it is very likely, and this may be the primary mission of the X-37B," Weeden said. "As far as the types of sensors, it could be virtually anything, but my guess would be radar, hyperspectral or infrared."

Pike remains skeptical.

"Over time, most of the money got spent just to keep the program going," Pike said.

"It acquired a life of its own. And now to the extent that it might be said to have any larger purpose, it would be to bewilder the Chinese."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20121211air-force-space-plane-launch.html

 

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Kind of awesome...

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