Secret X-37B mini space shuttle could land today

Secret X-37B mini space shuttle could land today

phys.org

After more than a year in orbit, the US Air Force’s clandestine mini-space shuttle will likely land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California sometime this week, with some reports saying it could land as early as today, Wednesday, June 13, 2012. It has been in orbit since March 5, 2011, but like the first X-37B mission that flew in 2010 and spent 224 days in space, the Air Force has not issued any information of what the craft is doing or where it is orbiting.

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Survives 1 Year in Orbit
Space Mistery: X37B has been in orbit for over a year, and no one knows what it's doing...

Whatever missions this air/space craft has been undertaking must be interesting and relevant to our times... since we kow absolutely nothing about it.

The craft has obviously demonstrated it's orbital longevity, and I can't help but wonder if craft like this might be able to render old satellites obsolete. Maneuverable, reusable, re-configurable...

After launch it had a 331 km (206-mile)orbit inclined 42.8 degrees to the equator, but in the summer of 2011 the orbit was raised slightly to 337 km (209 miles).
The craft looks like a miniature space shuttle, and is 8.8 meters (29 feet) long with a wing span of 4.2 meters (14 feet). It can weigh up to about 5,000 kg (11,000 pounds) fueled for launch. The reported in-space design life is 270 days, but sources say that good performance on this mission enabled ground controllers to keep it aloft significantly longer.

phys.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow I had no idea about this.

Is it un-manned?

And what's the purpose of having the Mini Space shuttle if all you do is keep it in orbit? I think perhaps this could be used as a means to test the long term effects of space on humans?

Or developping smaller, high performing space faring craft for future endeavors?

~Tenth

Whatever this craft has been doing, it will prob be usual scenario from TPTB, release the not so sensitive stuff and keep the good stuff in which Ufologists are looking for

reply to post by Maxmars


It's so intriguing this whole spacecraft and mission.

There has been intense speculation that it has been spying on the Chinese spacelab.

America's classified X-37B spaceplane is probably spying on China, according to a report in Spaceflight magazine. The unpiloted vehicle was launched into orbit by the US Air Force in March last year and has yet to return to Earth. The Pentagon has steadfastly refused to discuss its mission but amateur space trackers have noted how its path around the globe is nearly identical to China's spacelab, Tiangong-1. There is wide speculation that the X-37B is eavesdropping on the laboratory.

"Space-to-space surveillance is a whole new ball game made possible by a finessed group of sensors and sensor suites, which we think the X-37B may be using to maintain a close watch on China's nascent space station," said Spaceflight editor Dr David Baker.

www.bbc.co.uk...

No wonder the US will not sign the UN convention against the weaponisation of space, they have the monopoly!

A magician will hold an object aloft in his right hand, moving it around, garnering you're attention. While all thiie time the real action is taking place in his left. Same thing.

Pretty cool info, thanks for the update. My guess is it's another reconnaissance craft that could some day be retrofitted to launch missiles (if it hasn't been already).

It was probably up there to save anyone on the Space Station from Nibiru/ELE-nin!!

Wasn't there a spacecraft that had some sort of A.I that sort of disappeared a while back? I did find one article but it was dated in 2002, and is called a "comet seeking spacecraft"...odd, did they at least find that one?

Comet-Exploring Sacecraft

I think in its payload are smaller version of the Rods from God

The shuttles had to go, old tech and all
It was a big step forward to phase out the stupid humans too.
There was also the issue of that bulky life support system.
Are we or it going back to the moon soon?

explainingthefuture

Text

Helium-3 (He3) is gas that has the potential to be used as a fuel in future nuclear fusion power plants. There is very little helium-3 available on the Earth. However, there are thought to be significant supplies on the Moon. Several governments have subsequently signalled their intention to go to the Moon to mine helium-3 as a fuel supply. Such plans may come to fruition within the next two to three decades and trigger a new Space Race.

As reported in an Artemis Project paper, about 25 tonnes of helium-3 -- or a fully-loaded Space Shuttle cargo bay's worth -- could power the United States for a year. This means that helium-3 has a potential economic value in the order of $3bn a tonne -- making it the only thing remotely economically viable to consider mining from the Moon given current and likely-near-future space travel technologies and capabilities.

I've wondered why there hasn't been that many people talking about the X-37B at all. My uncle is a Boeing engineer and I've never heard him talk about it. My entire family works for Boeing and is usually always aware of various flight programs, their own and their competitors...

Good analogy about the magician's slight of the hand tho...

I rek'n its a decoy!
Send it up, tell the worlds its super secret and special.

then, when they are busy focusing on that... slip the dirty on the other side!

reply to post by Maxmars


We know that Vandenburg is prepared for the landing, but the immediate time frame is in question. It was announced it will be sometime this month, depending on weather and other conditions.

Just read that tomorrow is the next opportunity. The window for landing opened this past Monday, and runs through next Monday. It's dependent on weather, but they're ready to land on a moments notice.

The ship has multirole capabiity im thinking.....
It probably has a series of "packages" that can be deployed on it, like a strike fighters inventory, bombs, bullets or rockets etc....
I can imagine this as a test bed for the production of space drones which, when deployed, will be too numerous, and too lethal to be taken on by any country in the world.....
This tiny shuttle rocket could "Hold the high ground" all by itself anywhere in the world.....in any war.
Armed with all kinds of kinetic or energy weapons it would be the final piece of a world domination puzzle that has eluded the empire builders of the past.
If youve never heard of this vehicle, prepare yerself for its first introduction as a weapon.
It will be deadly!

reply to post by Maxmars


Busy little X-37B mini space shuttle.

Here's an update, it landed today;

bigstory.ap.org...-context=article/drones-computers-new-weapons-us-shadow-wars

After 15 months in orbit, the X-37B landed, here's a video:



How come the Air Force gets cool colored infrared while NASA only got black and white night vision? Oh well.

With such a small payload capacity, what was it doing? It's too small to fit a spy camera for observing the earth, these are usually the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, only pointed down.

Could they have housed a smaller camera or ELINT devices for getting information on something closer?

I agree with a previous poster that this "something" could have been the Chinese space station. If you look at their orbits they cross, so they could have come close enough together for the XB to take a peek:



I like the fact that space.com says:

The orbit for Tiangong 1 was pulled from the U.S. military's Space Track website

I can see asking the Air Force about it, they would say something like "What Chinese space station? Our shuttle is following a predetermined orbit established a long time ago" Uh-huh.

More pics and source here:

www.space.com...

Found a good write up on space.com. There's a picture of it at the end of the article that to me shows a hatch on the nose of the craft. Anybody else?

www.space.com...

Originally posted by JMech
Found a good write up on space.com. There's a picture of it at the end of the article that to me shows a hatch on the nose of the craft. Anybody else?

www.space.com...

Looks like a heat tile. On the civilian Space Shuttle, each tile was individually fitted and numbered like you see here. Also, if you look at the thermal image on the same page, the nose is brightest.

reply to post by Nicolas Flamel


Agreed, they are heat tiles, just looks like it has a secondary function, maybe it has optics behind it. Looking for a conspiracy where there may not be one.