The X-37B

[GabonX]

The United States has recently launched an experimental spacecraft. This craft is the first publicly known design intended to leave earth and return for repeated use.

The United States Air Force currently sponsors the project. Little else is known to the public, but there is speculation that the craft could have use as a weapon or as an experimental platform to be weaponized..

.. If this is true we are witnessing the beginnings of the weaponization of space.

Officials deny that this is the case.

After a decade of development, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is slated to launch from Florida and spend up to nine months in orbit. It will re-enter Earth on autopilot and land like an airplane at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The spacecraft will conduct classified experiments while in orbit. Payton said the Air Force's main interest is to test the craft's automated flight control system and learn about the cost of turning it around for launch again.

Built by Boeing's Phantom Works division, the X-37 program was originally headed by NASA. It was later turned over to the Pentagon's research and development arm and then to a secretive Air Force unit.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the project, but the current total has not been released.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04 ... craft.html

Blastoff of the unmanned X-37B space plane from Kennedy Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Space Center was delayed until Thursday, April 22, to allow Discovery to return to earth at the nearby Kennedy Space Center. With many of its features kept secret, the project has sparked speculation that the little Orbital Test Vehicle is the space version of the US Predator drone.

The shuttle with its seven astronauts made a safe landing to earth Tuesday after a 14-day journey of more than 6.2 million miles in space.

The 4.9-ton spacecraft - which has a wingspan of 4.27 meters and is 8.84 meters long - tested the long-duration ability of reusable space vehicles to stay in space for up to 270 days at an altitude of 200-800 km from earth before making an automatic landing at the Vandenberg Air force Base in California.

The duration and exact nature of the Orbital Test Vehicle's mission were not been disclosed by the US Air Force Capabilities Office which oversees the project. Some space experts are calling its launch the onset of the "weaponization" or militarization" of space. Our military experts describe the X-37B as the first unmanned space craft able to carry out combat missions outside Earth.

The X-37B was launched Thursday by an Atlas-5 rocket.

Originally built by Boeing's Phantom Works Division as NASA X-37, the space agency closed it down when funding ran out and turned the space plane over to the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In 2006, the Air Force took over the prototype.

http://debka.com/article/8730/

The hush-hush X-37B robotic space plane launched by the United States Air Force late Thursday is many things, but it's no space weapon, according to high-ranking official with the project.

Gary Payton, Air Force deputy undersecretary of space programs, scoffed at speculation that the X-37B space plane is the vanguard for a space weapon fleet and said its main purpose is to test space technology, not orbital weapons.

"I don't know how this could be called a weaponization of space," Payton told reporters this week before the launch. "Fundamentally, it's just an updated version of the space shuttle kinds of activities in space."

Payton said that the X-37B launch is primarily aimed at testing fundamental technologies for reusable spacecraft and space applications.

"If these technologies on the vehicle prove to be as good as we estimate, it will make our access to space more responsive, perhaps cheaper, and push us in the vector toward being able to react to warfighter needs more quickly," Payton said.

But it is the spacecraft's appearance as a rapid-response vehicle that can be launched on unmanned rockets has led to some speculation of its potential as a space weapon.

"Regardless of its original intent, the most obvious and formidable [potential use] is in service as a space fighter - a remotely piloted craft capable of disabling multiple satellites in orbit on a single mission and staying on orbit for months to engage newly orbited platforms," comparative military studies professor Everett Dolman, if the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at the Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., has told SPACE.com. That capability "would be a tremendous tactical advantage."

Dolman said it's still too early to determine what the ultimate use for the X-37B, or any future successors, may be.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0 ... t-a-weapon

[daddy1gringo]

This craft is the first publicly known design intended to leave earth and return for repeated use.

Doesn't that define the space shuttle?

[pimpdave]

This craft is the first publicly known design intended to leave earth and return for repeated use.

Doesn't that define the space shuttle?

I think they mean without needing booster rockets to get up into space, and the ability to be take off anywhere, not just specific NASA launch sites.

The point of such a craft would be to avoid air space laws. We could just go up into space, then come back down over the country we want to attack.

Bada-bing.

[edocsil]

Officially it is a troop transport, it seams however that it could easily be used for other purposes.

[Woodruff]

The United States has recently launched an experimental spacecraft. This craft is the first publicly known design intended to leave earth and return for repeated use.

The United States Air Force currently sponsors the project. Little else is known to the public, but there is speculation that the craft could have use as a weapon or as an experimental platform to be weaponized..

.. If this is true we are witnessing the beginnings of the weaponization of space.

First of all, pretty much ANYTHING can be used as a weapon. We've proven that time and again.

[naxus]

The weaponization of space was bound to happen anyway. We as a species have a tendencey to kill each other in new and interesting ways

[GabonX]

The United States has recently launched an experimental spacecraft. This craft is the first publicly known design intended to leave earth and return for repeated use.

The United States Air Force currently sponsors the project. Little else is known to the public, but there is speculation that the craft could have use as a weapon or as an experimental platform to be weaponized..

.. If this is true we are witnessing the beginnings of the weaponization of space.

First of all, pretty much ANYTHING can be used as a weapon. We've proven that time and again.

It's true..

Even if this craft doesn't have any of the suggested offensive bells and whistles, the fact that it has a crew means that they could probably sabotage satellites and the like even if there is no built in capacity to do so..

[b.k. barunt]

First weaponry in space? Are you guys forgetting Star Wars?


Honibaz

[GabonX]

First weaponry in space? Are you guys forgetting Star Wars?


Honibaz

A good point.. We don't know exactly what may or may not already be in space. This does appear to be a rather significant development though..

.. A reusable space transport vehicle opens the door to a lot of applications, both military and non-military...

[Phatscotty]

The United States has recently launched an experimental spacecraft. This craft is the first publicly known design intended to leave earth and return for repeated use.

The United States Air Force currently sponsors the project. Little else is known to the public, but there is speculation that the craft could have use as a weapon or as an experimental platform to be weaponized..

.. If this is true we are witnessing the beginnings of the weaponization of space.

First of all, pretty much ANYTHING can be used as a weapon. We've proven that time and again.

yes, so get rid of hand guns and the world's problems will be solved.

[Woodruff]

The United States has recently launched an experimental spacecraft. This craft is the first publicly known design intended to leave earth and return for repeated use.

The United States Air Force currently sponsors the project. Little else is known to the public, but there is speculation that the craft could have use as a weapon or as an experimental platform to be weaponized..

.. If this is true we are witnessing the beginnings of the weaponization of space.

First of all, pretty much ANYTHING can be used as a weapon. We've proven that time and again.

yes, so get rid of hand guns and the world's problems will be solved.

Is there a form of rationality or logic to your statement, or were you just trying to derail the thread?

[Juan_Bottom]

A couple of observations I've made in the past:

#1 The Air Force has had a hard-on for weapons in space for years. Despite the fact that it would only doom all of mankind. I pretty much hate this aspect of the Air Force with every fiber.

#2 They claimed Saddam's use of commercial GPS scramblers (acquired in Russia) as proof there was a space weapons-race was on. (not only did they not work, they painted the user with a bulls-eye)

#3 The US lost a large commercial satellite a few years back. We don't know why it fell out of orbit, but Air Force policy is to label it as potential sabotage or attack until we have a cause determined (this will likely never happen with most failures). This makes attack scenario sense though, because as we all know, the Russians don't want us watching Comcast alone on a Friday night. "Make some friends" they say.

#4 Earth-space is littered with dangerous debris. It's dangerous enough to go up there now. We almost lost a shuttle when a speck of paint hit a window. A speck of paint. A speck.

#5 The Air Force has fully developed designs for "Micro Satellites." These are about a meter in size and all they are supposed to do is photograph other nation's sats and ram them in the event of war. Their size is to conceal them as space debris. Don't really know if we have any up there now or not...

#6 If you blind a nation by taking out their satellites (even taking out one by accidentally bumping it while taking pics) that nation is almost forced to expect an imminent attack. They would have little choice but to attack first.

#7 If another nation feels threatened by our space weapons, all they need to do is launch a packet of gravel into low earth orbit. BAM! the space around Earth becomes useless. And that is the point I am making. A single weapon in low earth orbit could ruin space travel forever by filing it with untraceable debris.

#8 We also have designs for space nukes. They are to explode in space, and the EMP will take out every electronic device in orbit.

#9 The Air Force launched a Top-Secret Sat a few years back, that was supposed to be undetectable from earth without knowing the access codes to it's location. Amateurs with telescopes found it within a few hours though.

#10 The Air Force has plans for a space based bomber too. The plans for a low orbit Special Forces Transport has been known for like 10 years now. They just wrote another blurb about it in Popular Science too.

First weaponry in space? Are you guys forgetting Star Wars?


Honibaz

A good point.. We don't know exactly what may or may not already be in space. This does appear to be a rather significant development though..

.. A reusable space transport vehicle opens the door to a lot of applications, both military and non-military...

Mostly exclusively military because of the cost alone.
Star Wars was Reagan's "give all the taxpayer money in the world to my friends" project. Same as Bush II's Missal defense plan that gave Russia the right to build an unstoppable yet cheap-to-build inter-continental multi-warhead Nuclear Missal capable of being fired from a truck. Bush never got any of his billion dollar defense missals to work. His Billion-Dollar C-130 laser gunship designed to knock out an intercontinental ballistic missal never worked well enough either. That didn't matter anyway once the Russians started putting lazer proofing on the exterior of their missals.... geez I could go on and on about all of this useless weaponization. America sucks ass when it comes to this.

[Woodruff]

A couple of observations I've made in the past:

#1 The Air Force has had a hard-on for weapons in space for years. Despite the fact that it would only doom all of mankind. I pretty much hate this aspect of the Air Force with every fiber.

Doom all of mankind? Seriously?

#4 Earth-space is littered with dangerous debris. It's dangerous enough to go up there now.

This is certainly true. It's something we really need to figure out and clean up.

#5 The Air Force has fully developed designs for "Micro Satellites." These are about a meter in size and all they are supposed to do is photograph other nation's sats and ram them in the event of war.

And you have gotten your information about this undoubtedly-classified project how exactly?

#6 If you blind a nation by taking out their satellites (even taking out one by accidentally bumping it while taking pics) that nation is almost forced to expect an imminent attack. They would have little choice but to attack first.

I think I would agree with that.

#8 We also have designs for space nukes. They are to explode in space, and the EMP will take out every electronic device in orbit.

And you have gotten your information about this undoubtedly-classified project how exactly?

#9 The Air Force launched a Top-Secret Sat a few years back, that was supposed to be undetectable from earth without knowing the access codes to it's location. Amateurs with telescopes found it within a few hours though.

How exactly do these amateurs know it was a Top Secret Air Force satellite that was supposed to be undetectable from earth without knowing the access codes to it's location? Did the Air Force just come out and say "Aw, you got us there...nice catch!"?

#10 The Air Force has plans for a space based bomber too. The plans for a low orbit Special Forces Transport has been known for like 10 years now. They just wrote another blurb about it in Popular Science too.

I'm quite certain the United States military is intelligent enough NOT to put classified information into popular magazines, though I'm just as certain they ARE intelligent enough to throw plenty of disinformation around about pretty much anything they want the enemy to believe.

[Tiggy D Amour]

I wonder what happened to the X-37A?

[b.k. barunt]

I wonder what happened to Buck Rogers?


Honibaz

[GabonX]

I'm just as certain they ARE intelligent enough to throw plenty of disinformation around about pretty much anything they want the enemy to believe.

Well isn't that an interesting comment?..

I have no doubt that it's true, but I think that many people have yet to consider it..

[edocsil]

I wonder what happened to the X-37A?

It was likely a prototype that was never fully built, and likely used to test something. ie The actual thrust of the engines, a certain part of the hull and its resistance to heat, or anything else that hadn't been built and sufficiently tested before.

[GabonX]

I wonder what happened to the X-37A?

The X-37 lacked a propulsion system from what I'm reading..

.. It was a space glider that had to be towed up.


There's a surprising amount of information available about these things on wiki apparently..

I haven't checked the sources yet, but the following articles my be of interest:
Boeing Phantom Works
X-37
Bird of Prey
X-45

[Woodruff]

I wonder what happened to Buck Rogers?
Honibaz

By God, Erin Gray was the most beautiful woman to have ever graced television!

[Woodruff]

I'm just as certain they ARE intelligent enough to throw plenty of disinformation around about pretty much anything they want the enemy to believe.

Well isn't that an interesting comment?..

Why is it particularly interesting? I find it painfully obvious.

I have no doubt that it's true, but I think that many people have yet to consider it..

Really? Hmm...that seems odd to me.

[GabonX]

lol

The second comment I made is the answer to your question..

While it may seem odd or dumb to you and me, many people would consider the suggestion to be irrational.

[Nobunaga]

... Perhaps relevant.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/ ... ploration1

... Or not.

...

[Juan_Bottom]

Doom all of mankind? Seriously?

Yeah. We can't stay on Earth forever you know. One of two things will happen... We'll kill everything and not need to evolve/dominate anymore and turn into birds, or Earth will be destroyed from space. I think the latter is irrefutable. However Man's ability to ever even leave Earth isn't.

This is certainly true. It's something we really need to figure out and clean up.

I really wish we could. Sadly, there are millions of fragments above us flying at speeds of 17,500MPH. It's just unstoppable. So what space we have left is really precious.

And you have gotten your information about this undoubtedly-classified project how exactly?

First let me say that I have a theory about you. You only challenge me when you want to know more on a subject but don't want to look it up yourself. Nobody wants to be so wrong so much. Secondly, to answer your question:
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, NASA, the Orbital Debris Quarterly News (published by NASA's Johnson Space Center), the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the Air Force Space Command, Major General Daniel Darnell (and like a hundred others), the Department of Defense, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and lots of other sources, including Google. Most of the Air Forces pet space projects start with NASA with less sinister goals. The Air Force looks at something and says "put a bomb on that." Then it becomes classified.
If you want to know more about Micro-Satellites, you can simply google them. The first place to start is with the Air Force's XSS-11 series. The phrase "ASATs" will get some cool hits too I suspect. Or just search for Micro Satellites.

#9 The Air Force launched a Top-Secret Sat a few years back, that was supposed to be undetectable from earth without knowing the access codes to it's location. Amateurs with telescopes found it within a few hours though.

How exactly do these amateurs know it was a Top Secret Air Force satellite that was supposed to be undetectable from earth without knowing the access codes to it's location? Did the Air Force just come out and say "Aw, you got us there...nice catch!"?

What you want to google here, is the US Air Force's "Misty Series" top secret stealth satellites. They were first put into orbit in 1990, and thought to be undetectable from Earth. They severely underestimated Canada.

Juan_Bottom wrote:#10 The Air Force has plans for a space based bomber too. The plans for a low orbit Special Forces Transport has been known for like 10 years now. They just wrote another blurb about it in Popular Science too.

I'm quite certain the United States military is intelligent enough NOT to put classified information into popular magazines, though I'm just as certain they ARE intelligent enough to throw plenty of disinformation around about pretty much anything they want the enemy to believe.

But we have pictures ... check out the article in Popular Science. The Air Force has made it no secret that they want to put all kinds of weapons in space. The amount of information we have on the DoD's Milstar Satellite alone is quite amazing.

Same as Bush II's Missal defense plan that gave Russia the right to build an unstoppable yet cheap-to-build inter-continental multi-warhead Nuclear Missal capable of being fired from a truck.

The Russian Missile is called "SS-27 Topol-M" and was permitted to be built when George Bush Jr killed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.

His Billion-Dollar C-130 laser gunship designed to knock out an intercontinental ballistic missal never worked well enough either.

In 2004 the prototype ABL aircraft took it's first test flight. They went with a Boeing 747-400F instead of a C-130. They had to for logistical and cost reasons. Final cost?... $5.1 billion dollars per plane. Twice the original estimate. And it didn't work. The Topol-M works well though.

There's a surprising amount of information available about these things on wiki apparently..

There's a lot everywhere!

.. It was a space glider that had to be towed up.

As far as I know, the tow craft has been engineered, but never built. It was supposed to be the same one they wanted for the next generation of Space Shuttles. I f-ing love space exploration.

[Woodruff]

And you have gotten your information about this undoubtedly-classified project how exactly?

First let me say that I have a theory about you. You only challenge me when you want to know more on a subject but don't want to look it up yourself.

Do you really believe that? Because if you do, you're not paying attention very well. There are a good number of subjects that I might have a great deal of information on...the Air Force and it's various strategies being one of them.

#10 The Air Force has plans for a space based bomber too. The plans for a low orbit Special Forces Transport has been known for like 10 years now. They just wrote another blurb about it in Popular Science too.

I'm quite certain the United States military is intelligent enough NOT to put classified information into popular magazines, though I'm just as certain they ARE intelligent enough to throw plenty of disinformation around about pretty much anything they want the enemy to believe.

But we have pictures ...

Really? Pictures? Because I have never ever seen pictures that were faked, so if you have pictures, then they must be factual.

check out the article in Popular Science. The Air Force has made it no secret that they want to put all kinds of weapons in space. The amount of information we have on the DoD's Milstar Satellite alone is quite amazing.

You seem to have blithely overlooked my point about disinformation. You don't believe it might be in our military's interest to put this sort of information out into the public sphere?

[Fischer08]

Speeding Tickets from outer space?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... space.html

The system could be used for "main road enforcement for congestion reduction and speed enforcement", and could help to "eliminate rat-runs" and cut speeds outside schools, it added. It could also reduce the need for speed humps.

Ok so this is a UK satellite (surprise) but still related