X-37 space plane launches successfully
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/04/united-launch-alliance-x37-rocket.html
United Launch Alliance confirmed that the X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle was successfully launched at 4:52 p.m. Pacific time Thursday.
But many online viewers encountered a live webcast that was slow to upload during the launch. ULA spokesman Michael Rein said this might have had to do with the increased interest in the mission, which is “a lot more than the norm.”
Viewers did not get to see the X-37 separate from the Atlas V rocket. At the request of the U.S. Air Force, streaming video cut out 17 minutes after the rocket took off.
– W.J. Hennigan
X-37 Spacecraft History
http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Sidebar/2010/4/21/x37_spacecraft_history.html
The Air Force is getting ready to launch a mostly secret new spacecraft into orbit aboard an Atlas V rocket.
The X-37 is an unpiloted demonstration space plane intended to test future launch technologies while in orbit and during atmospheric re-entry.
History of the X-37
Source: NASA
Sept. 2, 2004
Initial atmospheric drop test. The X-37 was launched from the Scaled Composites White Knight, a high-altitude research aircraft better known for launching Scaled’s SpaceShipOne.
June 21, 2005
The X-37 completed a captive-carry flight underneath the White Knight at Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California.
Fall 2005
Several structural upgrades were made to the X-37 including reinforced nose wheel supports.
March 10, 2006
Scheduled public debut of X-37. But an artic storm covered the area.
March 15, 2006
Rescheduled X-37 flight canceled due to high winds
March 24, 2006
X-37 flew but a data link failure prevented the free flight and the vehicle returned to the ground still docked with its White Knight carrier.
April 7, 2006
The X-37 made its first free glide flight. During landing, the vehicle ran off the runway and it had minor damage.
Fall 2006
Five more flights were performed, at least one is believed to have been a free flight with a successful landing.
November 2006
Boeing is named the prime contractor for the program after the U.S. Air Force announced it would develop the X-37B
The 37-B was originally scheduled for launch in the payload bay of the space shuttle, but following the shuttle Columbia accident in 2003, it was transferred to a Delta II rocket.
It was subsequently transferred to the Atlas V rocket.
A second test for the X-37B is scheduled for 2011.
Pentagon X-37 space plane to launch amid secrecy
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2010/0422/Pentagon-X-37-space-plane-to-launch-amid-secrecy
The X-37, an unmanned miniature space shuttle, is set to launch Thursday night. Slowly, some details have begun to emerge about the mysterious Pentagon space plane.
The X-37 unmanned spacecraft is expected to blast off into its mysterious orbit tonight and may be gone for the better part of a year.
The 29-foot spacecraft resembles a mini space shuttle and will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida between about 7:50 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern time atop an Atlas V rocket. (Click here for the webcast.)
Other than the launch itself, which Air Force officials jokingly concede they couldn’t keep secret even if they tried, most of what the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle program is all about is classified.
That has led to speculation that the spacecraft is an American step toward the militarization of space – an assertion that the Pentagon refutes. The craft could also be used to conduct experiments in space, or to fix or return to earth damaged satellites, experts say.
As the launch has approached, however, some details about the spacecraft and its mission have begun to surface.
Some details emerge
Broadly speaking, the program is expected to test the Air Force’s ability to launch the spacecraft, keep it up for months at a time, return it to earth, and fly again. The length of its visit to space appears central to the mission.
The X-37 is able to fly for as long as 270 days powered, the Air Force hopes, by a combination of lithium ion batteries and a set of solar panels. Air Force officials will want to see how well the lithium ion batteries onboard stand up to the long deployment. The batteries are “recharged” by a set of solar panels inside the spacecraft that will emerge once the craft has deployed from the rocket that will carry it into space.
“There have been a few cases where satellites have been designed and flown with lithium ion batteries, but they are the newest sort of power storage technology that we’re using in space, so this again expands the knowledge base on lithium ion batteries,” said Gary Payton, Deputy Under Secretary for the Air Force’s space programs, in a conference call with reporters.
When the X-37 returns, Air Force officials will be particularly interested to see how much of an impact the long trip has had on the vehicle, and what is required to get it flying again. The hope is that it won’t take too much time to get operational again. The faster they can get it back into the air, the more cost effective the program will be.
A true space plane
Officials are hoping they can get it back up to snuff within 15 days of landing. The goal is to have it act like a true space plane more than a small version of the space shuttle, which requires an enormous amount of servicing and money to relaunch.
“I don’t think we’ve set any specific goal, but I would think handling this bird more like an SR-71 and less like a routine space launch vehicle would be a good objective,” said Payton, referring to the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance plane that was itself once classified.
In the future, the service is eager to build and launch a second “tail” – another X-37B – but it will likely wait until the first flight returns to earth before they put the second one up in the air, Payton said.
The X-37’s departure had been expected any time this week, but the late return of the Space Shuttle delayed its launch for a day or so. The Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV as it’s called, is expected to return to earth and land at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., though military officials say they don’t know when that will actually be.
The program has been around for years, started by NASA but then picked up by the Pentagon’s research and development arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, before moving to the Air Force. Because the program had moved from one agency to another, and because of the separate research-and-development costs borne by private industry, Payton said he could not say how much the program costs altogether.
Secret of the X-37B – it’s out of this world
A US Air Force unmanned spacecraft has blasted off from Florida, amid a veil of secrecy about its military mission.
The robotic space plane, or X-37B, lifted off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas V rocket at 7:52pm local time on Thursday (0952 AEST on Friday), according video released by the military.
“The launch is a go,” Air Force Major Angie Blair told AFP.
Resembling a miniature space shuttle, the plane is 8.9 meters long and has a wing-span of 4.5 meters.
The reusable space vehicle has been years in the making and the military has offered only vague explanations as to its purpose or role in the American military’s arsenal.
The vehicle is designed to “provide an ‘on-orbit laboratory’ test environment to prove new technology and components before those technologies are committed to operational satellite programs,” the Air Force said in a recent release.
Officials said the X-37B would eventually return for a landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but did not say how long the inaugural mission would last.
“In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back,” Gary Payton, deputy undersecretary for Air Force space programs, told reporters in a conference call this week.
Payton said the plane could stay in space for up to nine months.
Flight controllers plan to monitor the vehicle’s guidance, navigation and control systems, but the Air Force has declined to discuss what the plane is carrying in its payload or what experiments are scheduled.
Pentagon officials have sidestepped questions about possible military missions for the spacecraft, as well as the precise budget for its development – estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
The results of the test flight will inform “development programs that will provide capabilities for our warfighters in the future,” Payton said.
The space plane – manufactured by Boeing – began as a project of NASA in 1999, and was eventually handed over to the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
The Air Force has plans for a second X-37B, scheduled to launch in 2011.
AFP
X-37B military spaceplane launches from Cape Canaveral
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8601172.stm
A prototype spaceplane developed for the US military has been launched into orbit from Florida.
The X-37B, which has been likened to a scaled-down space shuttle, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 0052 BST (1952 EDT).
The military vehicle is unpiloted and will carry out the first autonomous re-entry and landing in the history of the US space programme.
The spacecraft can return experiments to Earth for inspection and analysis.
At 9m (29ft) -long, 4.5m (15ft), the reusable spaceplane is about one quarter the size of the shuttle, with a large engine mounted at the rear of the ship for orbit changing.
And while the space shuttle uses a fuel cell power system; the military vehicle is powered by a solar array and lithium-ion batteries.
The precise objectives and cost of the programme are secret. But the first few flights will allow officials to evaluate the vehicle’s performance and ensure components and systems work the way they are supposed to.
“The top priority technology demonstration on this first flight is the vehicle itself,” Gary Payton, the US Air Force’s deputy under secretary for space programs, told journalists on a teleconference this week.
“Getting it into orbit, getting the payload bay doors open, the solar array deployed, learning about on-orbit attitude control and bringing it all back.”
The X-37B was launched vertically atop an Atlas V rocket. The Air Force (USAF) says the vehicle will be used to test advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics and high temperature structures and seals.
The Pentagon has not specified a duration for this mission, but the X-37B is designed to operate on orbit for up to 270 days: “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back for sure. It depends on the progress that we make with the on-orbit experiments, the on-orbit demonstrations,” said Mr Payton.
Once the mission is complete, a command will be sent from the ground prompting the 5,000kg (11,000lb) spaceplane to fire its engine to re-enter the atmosphere.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47692000/gif/_47692982_x37b_info466.gif
It will then autonomously navigate its way to the 4.5km (15,000ft) -long primary runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The X-37B started life in 1999 as a US space agency programme, but Nasa handed the project over to the Pentagon in September 2004. As such, the Air Force is in a position to talk openly about the craft’s design, but its purpose remains classified.
Dr Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of national security and decision making at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, said the military would be waiting to see if this project yielded new capabilities: “It might be at this point in time that [the US Air Force is] going to roll the dice and see if something good happens.
“If it does, they’ll continue with it. Otherwise, this will be another one of those [experimental] projects that goes into a bin somewhere.”
Second plane
The USAF has requisitioned a second experimental plane from the prime contractor Boeing; this is being targeted for launch sometime in 2011.
Speculation about the craft’s purpose has led to accusations that the project could move us a step closer to the weaponisation of space.
Mr Payton responded: “I don’t know how this could be called weaponisation of space. It’s just an updated version of the space shuttle type of activities in space. We, the Air Force, have a suite of military missions in space and this new vehicle could potentially help us do those missions better.”
Dr Johnson-Freese told BBC News: “At one point they were talking about an ability to loiter in space. The Air Force has a long history of wanting a spaceplane with those kinds of capabilities.”
“If in fact it lives up to its speculated hype, it could be a manoeuvrable satellite. You could move it to, for example, hover over the straits of Taiwan and it could evade attempts to shoot it down. It could do a lot of things that up until this point have been mostly fiction.”
One space propulsion expert told BBC News said that the spacecraft would have to expend lots of fuel in order to hover and thus would only be able to do so for limited periods of time.
The programme is now led by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (AFRCO).
Edwards Air Force Base, also in California, has been designated as the vehicle’s back-up landing facility. The Soviet Union carried out an autonomous re-entry and landing with its Buran space shuttle in 1988.
