Skaði
FULL MEMBER
New Recruit
- Joined
- May 21, 2016
- Messages
- 51
- Reaction score
- 1
- Country
- Location
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](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fd1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F04%2FX-37.jpg&hash=0053adb21238d05ae636e8f85519785d)
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."
...
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.
...
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:
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](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2F7%2F7e%2FAtlas_V%2528401%2529_launches_with_LRO_and_LCROSS_cropped.jpg&hash=83745ead058b1a940194303a9e9b19e7)
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](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rebay.ch%2Fuploaded%2Fimg%2F40_7_space_shuttle_13_f6.jpg&hash=e6bd819c7e3359fa4344022021a05292)
...
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](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bredow-web.de%2FUS_Air_Force%2FTestflugzeuge%2FBoeing_X-40A_SMV%2FBoeing_X-40A.jpg&hash=e835bb5cf87b2421e6aedaf3a79ce0da)
*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 :happy: :happy:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/cute/happy.gif)