Did the US Launch Secret Mini-Shuttle to Intercept North Korean Space Nuke?

North Korea says rocket launch successful, satellite in orbit

U.S. military's secret mini-shuttle lifts off from Florida

I find it extremely coincidental that the US launched its secretive space plane so close to the launch of North Korea's first satellite.

Does anybody else here think that North Korea put a nuclear weapon into space and the US sent up this space plane to investigate/intercept it? Or am I the just being paranoid??

A little EMP from space, courtesy N Korea? A present like that would make for a lousy Christmas.

On a side note, the last Simpsons episode "The Day the Earth Stood Cool" left me a little uneasy. At the end, Mr Burns talks about going away from nuclear energy to old fashioned hand made energy. It then ends with him (the elite) driving a boring machine into the earth and he says "let the adventure begin."

Very interesting you point this out :O Perhapse they are going to check out their so called "satalite" or how about this spin on the idea... Maybe the USA plans on launching the nuke them selves in a false flag attack and blame it on north korea??

If they wanted it down they probably just would have shot it down or not let it fly at all by making a "malfunction"

NK would of said they successfully launched a satellite even if the Vehicle blew up on the launch pad.

reply to post by craig732


The X37-B was meant to be launched in October, the timing is coincidental.

Plus, the orbital inclinations of the two satellites are completely different.

Rockets launched from Cape Canaveral place satellites in an orbit between 28° - 57°, placing it in a prograde orbit.

The North Korean rocket was launched in what seems to be a polar orbit, as it was spotted flying over Okinawa, which is directly south of North Korea.

The X37-B can change it's course during orbits but only by a certain amount.
According to this PAPER, if the shuttle was launched from Cape Canaveral, it's course can be changed between 35 and 120 degrees. If launched from Vandenberg AFB, it has a range between 170 and 300 degrees.

So no, it wasn't launched to intercept the North Korean satellite, if it were, it would have been launched from Vandenberg.

Originally posted by zonetripper2065
If they wanted it down they probably just would have shot it down or not let it fly at all by making a "malfunction"

I agree... I think they disrupted North Korea's previous launch attempts. So why did they let this one reach space? To have evidence that North Korea put a nuclear weapon in space and therefore have a reason to attack them?

reply to post by craig732


It is a possibility, then again maybe it was just beginners mistakes that dropped the others. Even professionals lose rockets. They may be waiting for:
A. it to destroy itself so they can condemn NK
B. for it to fall to earth and hurt someone so they can condemn NK
C. wait for NK to threaten someone with it so they can bomb them without question
D. shoot it down from space so they can blame a free falling nuke on north Korea.

There is no evidence that this rocket carried any kind of nuclear weapon. Even the US has rocket failures, and they've been launching them for a lot longer than most countries.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Thanks Chad for such a comprehensive and reasoned reply.

Glad you are around, please keep up the good work.

reply to post by craig732


You make a good point. The only problem is that the way the US Government dishes out its' lies left and right; we probably won't know. Really makes you wonder though.

reply to post by Chadwickus


good stuff. should have read your response first before I opened my mouth. LOL nice work

reply to post by craig732


Interesting....maybe they want to have a look? Of course, if they wanted to shoot it down, well, Reagan got a system in place for that....or was that shut down....

Heck, maybe we are going up to see if they are full of baloney about the whole thing?


....wait a moment....a "secret mini shuttle" launch? if it's a secret, how does Yahoo news know about it? Not much of a secret!!!

reply to post by LadyGreenEyes


The X-37 isn't the secret. What it's doing in orbit for over a year at a time is.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Sorry Zaphod, I am not letting you kill this thread!

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by LadyGreenEyes

 

The X-37 isn't the secret. What it's doing in orbit for over a year at a time is.

Yeah, I know; just couldn't resist.

What they are doing, well......we had a lot of unspecified military payloads go up n the shuttles, shortly after the Star Wars program was "cancelled", too. Of course, if we did shoot one down, the North Koreans would never admit it.