X-37B Military Spaceplane

US to Launch Spaceplane on Secret Mission

The US Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane is being readied for its fourth flight, lifted atop a United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket on a classified mission for Air Force Space Command, NASA announced on its website on Tuesday.

The mission is believed to be demonstrating technology for future programs, including experiments allowing performance-enhancing modifications for communications satellites to be tested before they are introduced on operational missions.

The X-37 will also carry NASA’s Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space, or METIS, payload to expose an array of material samples to the space environment before returning them to Earth for study.

Developed by Boeing, the X-37B is an evolution of NASA’s proposed X-37A that was designed to be deployed from the Space Shuttle to conduct robotic satellite repair and research missions before returning to Earth independently.

The X-37A underwent a series of glide tests in 2006, but the program was subsequently cancelled.

The US Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency opted to continue development as a classified military program.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20150520/1022367240.html#ixzz3agdVLdGa

Yeah, much like their shuttle program, right? Haha. And Russia can launch minisats with a MiG-31....

It wont be both. Either it will be cheap or reusable.

They seem to have quite the ambitions. With also facing reduced budgets and importing engines.

Ill wait to see it to believe it.

Project Canada wrote:US to develop reusable spacecraft to launch military satellites quickly & cheaply

In four years? Please put the crack pipe down, RT, Boeing et al.

The current level of funding ($6.5 million) indicates pure paper research and not development work.

BlackArrow wrote:

kvs wrote:

Project Canada wrote:US to develop reusable spacecraft to launch military satellites quickly & cheaply

In four years?   Please put the crack pipe down, RT, Boeing et al.  

The current level of funding ($6.5 million) indicates pure paper research and not development work.

They don't need 4 years, such a spacecraft already exists Have you never heard of X-37B?

I don't see why they can't easily adapt such a spacecraft for satellite launches.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37#X-37B_2

Where do you think the salaries of the researchers come from? Over a 5 year period project the salary costs alone are
several million dollars. And both government agencies and private companies pay their workers from transient project
money so you can't claim that they get their salaries from somewhere else.

Converting this toy into a full scale craft will take hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions. It takes 300 million
dollars to do a single research satellite launch and that does not include the cost of developing and building the satellite.

VKS: US spaceplane X-37B - a simple object for monitoring Russia

According to the Chief of Staff of the Army 15 videoconferencing, look for X-37B - this is a very simple task. Kosmoplan so big that his every move much, he said.

MOSCOW, October 3 - RIA Novosti. The Russian space monitoring system to easily see the slightest movement of the American perspective spaceplane, said on Saturday, the army chief of staff 15 FSI (special purpose), Major-General Anatoly Nestechuk.

Earlier it was reported that an unmanned orbital spaceplane developed the X-37 Boeing's interests the US Defense Department. Since 2010, the United States carried out a three-run devices Series X-37B. The main mission of the mini-shuttle is considered to be the ability to deliver small loads into space, as well as intelligence activities. At the disposal of the US Air Force is now two devices X-37B. The last mission, launched in December 2012, lasted a record 675 days.

Space Forces Day annually celebrated in Russia on October 4.

"It is for us the easiest task - to look for the X-37B. It is so big that it is to turn left or right, we have already noted his every move", - said Nestechuk in the "General Staff" radio RSN.

Previously also reported that Russia is developing the project, which will be the answer to the American system of the X-37.

Talking about the space control system, it is also noted that the Space Forces are actively monitored to ensure that the International Space Station (ISS) collided with space debris, and sometimes even have to re-examine these colleagues from the United States.

"Just recently, the US side has given information about the dangerous proximity of the International Space Station with one of the space debris - the probability of convergence was very large. The specialists of space control system of our compounds have been translated and performed work on the analysis of the situation, and we have issued almost zero probability this dangerous approach - check us a little bit, too, in their ability to perform tasks in this direction, "- said Nestechuk.

"Until today, maybe we have enough funds, but brains - Mathematics - allows very high quality", - he added.

Space surveillance systems (SKKP) was established to monitor the satellites and other space objects and is the main catalog of space objects. This is a basic element of Russia's unified information system for the global monitoring of the situation in outer space. SKKP In addition, this system consists of a single early-warning system (EWS), as well as power and missile (ABM) and the defense (PVO).

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=2&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20151003/1296222546.html&usg=ALkJrhj4nPpaI5n15Skt49hXyYKBTufH9g

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/04/who-wants-to-weaponize-outer-space/

The US wants to have primacy in everything. But it is going to get an existential shock if it thinks it can dominate Russia
in space. It is opening a Pandora's box from which it will never recover.

This idiocy of the self-described "hyper-power" is epic. They kill off the ABM treaty thinking that they can neutralize
Russia's nuclear forces. Now they want to go down the path of parking nukes in orbit (think of Teller's nuclear detonation
driven gamma ray laser platforms). Do they expect to be safe and secure from Russian orbiting weapons platforms?
Do these retards really believe that Russia has no ability to respond? They should consider the performance of the
S-400 vs. their latest Patriot system. But being retards they have no capacity to engage in such evaluations.

The US Air Force’s unmanned X-37B space plane has now spent more than 500 days orbiting the Earth, without statement or explanation.

The 29-foot unmanned plane is part of the Air Force's orbital program. Launched May 20, 2015, it is the program's fourth flight (hence its other name, OTV-4 for Orbital Test Vehicle-4). The first OTV took flight in 2010 and spent 224 days in orbit; two others brought the total number of OTV days in orbit before 2015 to 1,367, according to the Air Force.

The full purpose or intent of the program? The US Air Force remains mum.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/military/201610111046238374-spaceplane-reaches-500-days/

Boeing will create space-plane "Phantom Express" for DARPA



http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2627311.html

The Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, the Pentagon’s secretive space plane, returned to Earth in early May after nearly two years in space. But in just a few months it’ll be heading back out to orbit – except this time it’ll be on the back of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

https://sputniknews.com/military/201706071054418279-space-plane-spacex-launch-booster/