Secret mission accomplished: America's mysterious space plane to land after a YEAR in orbit

MailOnline, dailymail.co. ^ | 4 June 2012 | Rob Waugh

[svcw]

The U.S Air Force’s highly secret unmanned space plane will land in June - ending a year-long mission in orbit. --- Full headline: Secret mission accomplished: America's mysterious space plane to land after a YEAR in orbit - and no one knows what it did up there

[svcw]

Probably of no import, really, just thought it was interestingly fun.

[MarkL]

Must have been a "real man" driving it... A year in orbit, never stopping once to ask for directions!

Mark

[FlingWingFlyer]

I hope it wasn’t up there taking hi def photos of cow pies for Barry’s EPA.

[Daus]

This craft is the equivalent of keeping a SR71 Blackbird on station 24/7 for a year. Impressive. Need to monitor the Paki’s? Adjust orbit and your ready to go.

[AndyTheBear]

It may have been up many years ago, helping the black helicopters spy on candidate Ross Perot...

[cpdiii]

This craft is the equivalent of keeping a SR71 Blackbird on station 24/7 for a year. Impressive. Need to monitor the Paki’s? Adjust orbit and your ready to go.

Due to orbital mechanics this craft (probably) can not be diverted to do a specific surveillance task on short notice. The blackbird and U2 can. It does not replace surveillance aircraft but complements them.

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, those flight attendants must be a little gamey by now.

thanks svcw.

[garyb]

So, when the Daily Mail says “...no one knows...” they mean, the news media doesn’t know. Arrogant. The people who put it up there know what it does.

[Sax]

Daily Mail: Questions: The unmanned space plane is the second of its kind to be sent up by the U.S. Air Force - but its purpose has never fully been explained

I dunno what they're talking about; this is as good an explaination as you're going to get for a Defense/Intelligence asset: "As part of its mission goals, the X-37 was designed to rendezvous with friendly satellites to refuel them, or to replace failed solar arrays using a robotic arm. Its payload could also support Space Control (Defensive Counter-Space, Offensive Counter-Space), Force Enhancement and Force Application systems."

[publius911]

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[Daus]

What I've seen on the internets says she has 3km/s delta V potential. This would allow her onsite, anywhere in an hour or two.

But who can believe the internets?? :)