USA's second X-37 space plane due for launch

[TruthSeeker]

U.S. military's second X-37 space plane due for launch
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: March 3, 2011

An Atlas 5 rocket crowned with a covert U.S. Air Force space plane rolled to a Florida launch pad Thursday to begin final preps for blastoff with a secret cache of military experiments.

The metallic gold-colored rocket, topped by a bulbous white nose cone, rolled from an integration building to the launch pad at Complex 41 Thursday afternoon.

Liftoff from Cape Canaveral is scheduled for a launch window opening at 2039 GMT (3:39 p.m. EST) Friday. The exact launch time will be announced around 8 a.m. EST Friday, according to the Air Force.

When the 20-story launch blasts off, it will be hauling a stubby-winged spaceship called the Orbital Test Vehicle several hundred miles above Earth. Also known as the X-37B, the space plane is carrying a number of classified experiments inside its cargo bay, which is about the size of the bed of a pickup truck.

Resembling a mini-space shuttle, the OTV's purpose is shrouded in secrecy, but the vehicle itself is not classified. It features a powerful main engine to change its orbit, uses a solar array for power production and is covered in ceramic heat-resistant tiles to protect the craft during re-entry.

The craft could ferry into orbit materials science payloads, experimental reconnaissance sensors, innovative communications instruments, or a variety of other potential cargo.

Friday's launch will the start second flight of the Air Force's robotic space plane program, coming three months after an identical ship glided back to Earth and landed on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The Dec. 3 return of the first X-37B craft was the first time an unmanned U.S. space vehicle fell back to Earth and made a precision landing on a runway.

This follow-up mission will attempt to achieve the same feat, but the OTV 2 flight will take advantage of lessons learned from the experience of the first X-37 sortie, according to Maj. Tracy Bunko, an Air Force spokesperson at the Pentagon.

"Like all flight test programs, OTV 2 will build on the on-orbit demonstration of OTV 1, so we're expanding and fine tuning our test parameters," Bunko told Spaceflight Now.

The X-37B stretches 29 feet long and has a wing span of 14 feet. It can weigh up to 11,000 pounds fueled for launch.

Built by Boeing's Phantom Works division, the space plane was initially conceived by NASA. The program was handed off to DARPA, the Pentagon's research and development unit, in 2004 after NASA funding dried up.

The Air Force took over in 2006 and brought the space plane to the launch pad last year. The first X-37B flight lifted off April 22 and spent more than 224 days in space.

The project is managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, a top-level group reporting to a board of senior branch officials including the secretary of the Air Force, the Air Force chief of staff, and the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics.

The office "expedites 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 fact sheet.

Many of the Rapid Capabilities Office's projects are implemented on accelerated timelines, the fact sheet said.

The spacecraft can stay in orbit for up to nine months and will return to Earth for landing at Vandenberg, the Air Force said.

Spaceflight Now | Atlas Launch Report | U.S. military's second X-37 space plane due for launch

 

[Kinetic]

The X-37B on the launch pad shows USAF marking, how they gonna use it? ASAT? Nuclear delivery system?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-37B_inside_payload_fairing_before_launch.jpg

 

[anon45]

The X-37B on the launch pad shows USAF marking, how they gonna use it? ASAT? Nuclear delivery system?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-37B_inside_payload_fairing_before_launch.jpg

most likely reconnaissance, or as a testbed for technologies that would go on a larger version with a different mission. Or both!

 

[DesiGuy]

great!!!!!!!!

 

[Aramsogo]

Prompt Global Strike. It's an atmospheric bomber or testing atmospheric bombing technology. The weaponization of space has already begun.

 

[Thomas]

 

[BATMAN]

most likely reconnaissance, or as a testbed for technologies that would go on a larger version with a different mission. Or both!

Why you said most likely????
Were satellites not good enough for space reconnaissance?

 

[Thomas]

Prompt Global Strike. It's an atmospheric bomber or testing atmospheric bombing technology. The weaponization of space has already begun.

Prompt global strike has as much to do with the weaponization of space as an ICBM does. The X-37B has more to do with Surveillance and communications payloads.

 

[Aramsogo]

Prompt global strike has as much to do with the weaponization of space as an ICBM does. The X-37B has more to do with Surveillance and communications payloads.

The X-37B can loiter in space for 9 months at a time. It's easy to put a warhead in that "experiment bay". That's a big difference between X-37B and an ICBM. It may even be able to evade missile defense. If this was really "surveillance and communications" payload they could have just used the space shuttle during the past 25 years and kept it a civilian project. Why do you think China has to respond with the Shenlong if this is just a science project?

Wikipedia:
The PGS system will be designed to complement Forward Deployed Forces, Air Expeditionary Forces (which can deploy within 48 hours) and Carrier battle groups (which can respond within 96 hours).[3] Possible delivery systems include:

-a rocket like those of existing ICBMs, launched from the United States mainland, or SLBMs
-an air-launched hypersonic cruise missile, such as the Boeing X-51
-launch from an orbiting space platform

 

[BATMAN]

It has been noted that, as long X-37B remain in air aircraft crashes increases many fold.

 

[Aramsogo]

Military Potential of Unmanned Space Platforms

The Shenlong could validate technologies and form the basis for a range of unmanned and manned space vehicles, which both could serve civil-commercial as well as military missions. However, it appears be sufficient Chinese literature and statements to justify concern that China’s space planes are being developed for military missions in space and to attack targets on Earth. In his recent review of Chinese literature on Chinese military views toward space warfare, Dr. Larry Wortzel noted that China was exploring a list of potential space weapons, which included “space planes that can transit and fight ‘up or down’ in the upper atmosphere or space.”[14]

In May 2002 Dr. Zhuang Fenggan gave an interview to the Beijing Youth Daily in which he revealed new information on China’s space plane plans. In this article Zhuang suggested that a space plane was intended to be a “space combat weapons platform” and serve “dual use” missions. He also noted that a mere “space shuttle” did not meet China’s needs, which required a space plane that could move “freely” between space and the upper atmosphere. Zhuang also identified a number of technologies China would have to master for its space plane, to include hypersonic, high mobility, and advanced materials. But it is also curious that Zhuang would identify “high stealth” and “precision strike” technologies as important for China’s space plane.[15]

In 2005 three Chinese researchers from the Center for Precision Guidance Technology of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Aeronautics indicated that China may have already been developing a space capability for attacking targets on Earth. In one article they noted, “The greatest advantage of a space-based ground attack weapon system is its high speed and short reentry time. It is extremely difficult for the enemy to intercept such a weapon.”[16] While this article does not identify Chinese space plane or space shuttles as a potential space based “ground attack weapon,” one cannot discount that China may be designing its unmanned or manned space plane for this purpose.

Space Bomber Concept

The concept of a space bomber is not new. During World War Two Germany’s Dr. Eugene Albert Sanger proposed a 100 ton rocket powered bomber that would skip atop the upper atmosphere to attack the United States.[17] There has also been recent U.S. debate over making greater military use of space. In 1999 U.S. Congress created The Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization, which was led by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In its February 2001 report the “Space Commission” concluded:

“The nation’s vital interests depend increasingly on the capability of its military professionals to develop, acquire and operate systems capable of sustained space combat operations…It is also possible to project power though and from space in response to events anywhere in the world. Unlike weapons from aircraft, land forces or ships, space missions initiated from earth or space could be carried out with little transit, information or weather delay. Having this capability would give the U.S. a much stronger deterrent, and in combat, an extraordinary military advantage.”[18]

After he took office as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld tried to advance the goal of developing a sub-orbital hypersonic bomber that could reduce the response time for U.S. strikes anywhere on the Earth to a few hours. But from the partisan atmosphere that greeted the Commission, to Congressional opposition to the hypersonic bomber, and then the change in national priorities that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks, Rumsfeld’s ambition for such a hypersonic or space combat platform has not been realized.[19] To compensate, the Department of Defense has also proposed outfitting intercontinental ballistic missiles with non-nuclear warheads, which has also been opposed by the Congress. But following China’s 2007 successful ASAT demonstration the Bush Administration has sought additional funding for programs designed to protect U.S. space assets, as well as new funding for a hypersonic strike aircraft.[20]

Implications for the United States

China appears to have made significant progress toward the development of an unmanned trans-atmospheric vehicle. While it has obvious commercial and scientific uses, it is also clear that much of the purpose behind the development of this craft is military. The comments of Chinese officials indicate that their rocket powered space plane program may be a reaction to U.S. and Indian ambitions to develop hypersonic transports and bombers. But the comments of some of these officials plus those of Chinese military academics indicate that a space plane may also form the basis for a space combat platform. This space combat platform may be intended to attack targets on Earth or it could carry out counter-space combat missions. In addition, China is aggressively pursuing air-breathing hypersonic propulsion technologies, which may provide another avenue to developing very rapid long-range “deep strike” weapons.

 

[anon45]

Why you said most likely????
Were satellites not good enough for space reconnaissance?

I say most likely because i'm not associated with the program development in any way, and so there is absolutely no way I can be 100% certain.

 

[Thomas]

The X-37B can loiter in space for 9 months at a time. It's easy to put a warhead in that "experiment bay". That's a big difference between X-37B and an ICBM. It may even be able to evade missile defense. If this was really "surveillance and communications" payload they could have just used the space shuttle during the past 25 years and kept it a civilian project.

The shuttle was used for secret military missions. Now the military has something even better that isn't limited by the human considerations the Shuttle was. However the one draw back it has is it can not deliver the same payloads the shuttle could, the X-37 is far smaller. It is in effect a flying re-usable satellite itself. Another plus is it can be easily upgraded with next generation surveillance technology. Spy and communication satellites take years to develop, build, and launch. with the abilities of the X-37 that time is vastly reduced.

And the U.S. can already evade radar defenses. It doesn't need to park a single nuke warhead in space on an X-37.

 

[Red Dwarf]

Why it is operated by USAF and not NASA ?.

 

[Thomas]

Why it is operated by USAF and not NASA ?.

It was a NASA project that ran out of funds. the military saw it's potential and took the project over.