Sadly, telemetry was lost 9 minutes into a planned 30 minute flight. I hope they at least got some useful data.

Nice information shadow...is there any other information you can share with us about new projects related to space?

Perhaps the USAF launched the X-37 on a SAR mission to get the Falcon Hypersonic V-2 back before some other gov't gets a hold of it. I just finished reading an article that implied that DARPA has pretty much said "Oh well, at least we got 9 minutes of telemetry, darn we we're lucky we got something!" Who cares about the cost.

The total projected cost for the development, fabrication and flight test of the two HTV-2 vehicles is $308 million, a DARPA spokeswoman said.

Tell me what you think? I, for one, believe them (cough's into hand-Bull#!)

Originally posted by Springheel Jack
Perhaps the USAF launched the X-37 on a SAR mission to get the Falcon Hypersonic V-2 back before some other gov't gets a hold of it.

How would the X-37B, which is in orbit, recover the HTV-2, which is sitting somewhere ocean floor? I don't understand.

I just finished reading an article that implied that DARPA has pretty much said "Oh well, at least we got 9 minutes of telemetry, darn we we're lucky we got something!" Who cares about the cost.

While more telemetry would have been great of course, it was never meant to be recovered regardless if the mission was successful or not.

How would the X-37B, which is in orbit, recover the HTV-2, which is sitting somewhere ocean floor? I don't understand.

Well there's the kicker, perhaps it did not have an ocean impact, perhaps it achieved escape velocity... would you use a 154 million dollar Mach20 experimental vehicle just to crash it into the ocean? I don't think so, but you are entitled to your opinion. I think it's borderline idiotic to think they would ditch it in the ocean. I find it hard to believe they don't know exactly where its at...but my post was just speculation, who knows?

I was just guessing at what could possibly motivate the USAF to send it up and be so cryptic with their "We don't know when its coming back." reply. Seems if they wanted to use a plausible cover story, they couldve told the public "It's a weather satellite" or some such, it's worked in the past. It just seems odd how they went about it is all.