SCI/TECH: NASA Transfers X-37 to Unidentified U.S. Agency, page 1

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 04:09 PM

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NASA has transferred it's X-37 RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle) technology demonstrator to an unidentified U.S. government agency, making it a classified program. The unnamed agency will go ahead with atmospheric drop tests of the prototype space plane next year. NASA will still be involved in the program, but 'will no longer run the show', according to NASA spokesman Michael Braukus.

Space.com

"The government entity is classified," Braukus said. "We will be able to acknowledge who that partner is when they give us permission." Braukus said he expected to receive that permission soon.

News that lead responsibility for the X-37 program was changing hands was first reported by the Desert News, a newspaper covering Mojave, Calif., and surrounding areas. The newspaper also reported that the X-37 would be carried aloft for next year’s drop tests by the White Knight, the Scaled Composites-built aircraft that carried SpaceShipOne aloft in June for its historic manned suborbital space shot, the first in a privately funded effort.

Braukus said Scaled Composites would be involved in the X-37 approach and landing demonstrations next year, but could not say whether the Mojave-based company would be using the White Knight or some other aircraft. The B-52 aircraft that NASA normally uses for such drop tests would not be used, a decision made by the agency now in charge of the X-37 program, he said.

"The cost analysis favored Scaled Composites," Braukus said.

Scaled Composites spokeswoman Kay LeFebvre would not confirm the company’s involvement in the planned dropped tests and referred questions about the White Knight’s role in the X-37 program to American Mojave Aerospace Ventures. That company, a Paul Allen and Burt Rutan partnership that owns SpaceShipOne and its carrier aircraft, recently announced that it would make its first official try for the $10 million Ansari X-Prize Sept. 29.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

So, dispite the support for RLV projects died off in recent years*, an agency is still very much interested in use of RLVs...interesting...

*An interesting article about RLVs' future was released by TheSpaceReview yesterday: Orphan RLVs

X-37/ X-40 RLV Demonstrator

[edit on 14-9-2004 by Zion Mainframe]

Sigma

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 04:17 PM

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I am guessing that this as of yet unknown agency will probably turn out to be the USAF, unless the shadow govenment is ready to make its grand outting into the spotlight.

FredT

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 04:18 PM

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Intersting to say the least. Black project are often developed in parallell to White projects. ie: Sr-71 / A-12 program. Kind of interesting that they would be so public about turning it over. If they really wanted to stay covert why not shut down the program publicaly and then transpher it? , My money is on the AF as the recieving agancy.

Murcielago

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 06:08 PM

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hmmm... It says scaled composites is doing the flight test drop, but then says they denied comment.

This makes me think that Scaled Composites is the classified one there referring to. We all know Burt does things big, and loves space, and with a partner like Paul Allen (the man with never-ending pockets), its possible that there going to take even bigger steps to get to space.

I saw an interview with him after they announced spaceship one and he seemed very antzy and he was also hinting that thats not all they got, and I also saw a show that had camera all over the whitenight and spaceship one and they asked him if they could gets shots of all of the stuff hes created in other hangars, and he said No and that some hangars are classified.

Its easy to assume that its the usual Big Dog (USAF), but this time I just dont see why they would have any interest in this, surley they have better stuff then this.

Calculon386

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 07:02 PM

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I think it sucks that almost all new technology is first used as a weapon THEN we use it to help people.

Atomic Bomb - Atomic Energy
Space Plane/Bomber - X-37

(prediction) Antimatter Bomb - Antimatter space engines

That's just the way it is I guess... War invents things out of nessessity (??) and we get whats left after the war.

EmbryonicEssence

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 09:25 PM

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I think Paul Allen is definitely going to make his new billions (hell, maybe trillions) through his venture with Scaled Composites. Scaled Composites was a very smart investment on Paul Allen's part, and I'm sure he'll give Bill a part of the action too... Best buds forever! lol.

Murcielago

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 11:38 PM

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Originally posted by EmbryonicEssence
I think Paul Allen is definitely going to make his new billions (hell, maybe trillions) through his venture with Scaled Composites. Scaled Composites was a very smart investment on Paul Allen's part, and I'm sure he'll give Bill a part of the action too... Best buds forever! lol.

Trillions.....No. He's currently number 5 on Forbes 400, sitting on top of 21 billion dollars, Bill has over twice that (#1 Forbes), But ya cant diss Bill cause hes gives alot of it away to medical stuff and charities.

I believe it has more to do with there boy hood dreams (I mean, who doesn't want to go to space?) then it has to do with making money, although I do think that Rutan and Allen will make millions in the years to come.

Another Forbes 400 is Warren Buffet (#2), hes sittin on 43 billion, I think we will here more about him in coming years. He's a business man that can buy anything except TIME. Hes being in several magazines including Popular Science, Theres rumors that hes working on making a private jet that can go around mach 2, hes putting money into it to reduce the size of the sonic boom down to a level that the FAA will accept. While Yes hes only doing this so he can get from place to place faster, but the rest of the world will get to reap the rewards.

ThunderCloud

posted on Sep, 14 2004 @ 11:53 PM

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The U.S. Air Force is developing a space-capable fighter plane!

fortunate1

posted on Sep, 15 2004 @ 12:03 AM

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Originally posted by Murcielago
Its easy to assume that its the usual Big Dog (USAF), but this time I just dont see why they would have any interest in this, surley they have better stuff then this.

You're right, surely they must have something much more sophisticated than the X-37. This may simply be the beginning of the end for NASA. With private industry growing so near space capability, the USAF may be taking this project to use it for some of their more public exercises and tasks while letting the private sector pick up the slack.

NASA may be on it's way out as far as manned space missions are concerned. Maybe they're just waiting for private sources to take the next steps in manned space exploration. It seems that almost everyone is in agreement that the shuttles are out of date and no longer sufficient for our needs. If we've lost confidence in the shuttles and NASA no longer controls the X-37, then what are we gonna do? Go back to using rockets?

To be honest, if this is the beginning of the end for NASA, then I'd have to say it's long overdue.

Murcielago

posted on Sep, 15 2004 @ 12:15 AM

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fortunate1 - I dissagree with alot you said.

If Nasa goes, so does space exploration.

Go back to using rockets? - what? - Thats what we have being doing. We havn't used anything other then rockets.

You make it sound as if Boeing's X-37, was Nasa's "Ace up thier sleeve", it isn't.

I dissagree with alot of what Nasa does, But that doesn't mean I want them gone. Personally I would like to see Sean O'Keef get the boot, Not because of failures but because of "LACK OF VISION".

fortunate1

posted on Sep, 15 2004 @ 12:56 AM

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Originally posted by Murcielago
fortunate1 - I dissagree with alot you said.

You certainly have the right to disagree with a lot that I said lol, however I think that you may have misunderstood me. I know that rockets were in fact strapped to the freakin' shuttle. I was asking if we were planning on reverting back to DISPOSABLE rockets for all of our manned missions in place of the shuttle. Is the shuttle not a more rudimentary reusable launch vehicle itself?

As far as the X-37 beings NASA's "ace up their sleeve"... was it not meant to replace the aging shuttle design? Do they have an alternate design that is as far ahead in testing as the X-37? Besides, I'm obviously no expert on this subject and was only stating an idea... a suggestion lol.

I never suggested that they would be totally shut down. I specified that they MIGHT be stepping back from manned missions, at least any of those beyond Earth's orbit.

Do you really think that space exploration would come to and end if NASA were to step back and let others take on some of the responsibilities? Exploration is in our very nature. Others WOULD take up the slack and are in the process of doing so right now. Besides, you know that the military will NEVER stop it's pursuits into space. NASA has dropped the ball too many times and acted far too deviously for my liking. Leadership is not their only problem. In my opinion, the future of space exploration outside of the military rests in the hands of private citizens and corporations.

Murcielago

posted on Sep, 15 2004 @ 01:20 AM

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fortunate1
I was asking if we were planning on reverting back to DISPOSABLE rockets for all of our manned missions in place of the shuttle. Is the shuttle not a more rudimentary reusable launch vehicle itself?

To soon to tell. But if I had to guess.....Yes.

I have my issues with the shuttle, For starters its not fully reusable, every tank you have seen on the pad get burnt up in the atmosphere, the rocket boosters take months to get back online bacause they basically rebuild them, and for the shuttle itself, the worst thing about it compared to a capsule is that capsules can be made in an assembly line type of config, where when new tchnology becomes available the can incorporate it into the design, which is impossible with our space shuttles. So if were going to keep using rockets then we should go back to using capsules.

Nasa has screwed up so much on the whole space plane idea that its possible that the X-37 was there best. They have a list of unsuccesful ones :X-30 / X-33 / X-34 / X-38 / X-40.

I never suggested that they would be totally shut down. I specified that they MIGHT be stepping back from manned missions, at least any of those beyond Earth's orbit.

Eventually yes, But not as long as the ISS is still up there.

Private citizens can not spend billions looking at other star systems, they would be broke in a week.
Nasa gets over 15 billion a year from congress. If Nasa was no more, they wouldn't just start giving the money to some other citizens. If they did that citizen would build alot and hire alot of people to work for him and he would launch probes into space to really see whats out there and then BOOM, you relize that nothing has changed from the previous organization.

Nasa is strictly Private sector, its not supposed to have any military involvement.

ThunderCloud

posted on Sep, 15 2004 @ 02:26 AM

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Does everyone remember the 1970's, when the U.S. Post Office finally made people mad enough with their inefficiency and ineptitude that they were willing to go to private companies that would deliver mail? Thus was born companies like Fed Ex and UPS. Both companies (and their other competitors) are doing very well today! The U.S. Post Office is still around, of course, but it's not near the big dog it once was...

I think the same thing is going to happen in the space industry. NASA now has the reputation for inefficiency and ineptitude that the U.S. Post Office did in the 1970's. And the need for satellites, space stations, and long term goals like exploration and resource locating & gathering from other planets, moons, and asteroids won't go away anytime soon. I forsee private space agencies springing up in the U.S. (and around the world) in the future. These private space agencies will compete with the likes of NASA, the European Space Agency, etc. economically. Of course, NASA will always be around, they just might not be the big dog they are now in the future...

PublicGadfly

posted on Sep, 15 2004 @ 04:08 AM

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Maybe this entire transfer was just to pump up Boeing?

They have not been doing well.

Boeing now touts new jobs.

Aerobus hurt them bad but now new business will pull them up.

Zion Mainframe

posted on Sep, 15 2004 @ 03:46 PM

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DARPA it is: www.space.com...

So they'll probably test it for the air force, to launch military satellites...

Red Golem

posted on Sep, 24 2004 @ 09:21 AM

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Might any one have found a picture of the X-37?

Murcielago

posted on Sep, 24 2004 @ 10:16 PM

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