Posted on 05/08/2017 10:28:21 AM PDT by blam
The US military's X-37B space plane landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, ending its record-breaking 718-day orbit with a sonic boom during its first landing in Florida.
The US Air Force has two X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles, which it calls its newest and most advanced reentry spacecraft.
At 29 feet long and with a 14-foot wingspan, the planes are about one-quarter of the size of NASA's now retired space shuttles and have a cargo bay about the size of a pick-up truck's.
The first X-37 program started in 1999, and the X-37B first flew in April 2010, returning after eight months in flight.
The next mission, launched in March 2011, was 15 months long, and the third mission in December 2012 lasted 22 months.
"Our team has been preparing for this event for several years, and I am extremely proud to see our hard work and dedication culminate in today’s safe and successful landing of the X-37B," Air Force Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, the commander of the 45th Space Wing, said in a release.
The most recent X-37B mission, launched in May 2015, brings the orbital test vehicle program to a total of 2,085 days spent in orbit.
Amateur astronomers have been able to spot the craft through telescopes and observed it at relatively low altitudes — a little less than 200 miles up, according to some, which is lower than the International Space Station.
What the X-37Bs have doing during those 2,085 days in orbit is less clear, however.
The X-37B program "performs risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies," the Air Force said in its release.
The Air Force has said the program is testing "advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature
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To be effective, shouldn’t Rods from God be smart?
I'm pretty sure those four guys are ground crew and those are hazmat suits not space suits.
The Shuttle caused a double sonic boom as it neared the Cape. Usually over Daytona Beach.
Depends on the return path. Where I live, we heard them about 50% of the time with the shuttle. Yesterday made me look out the window for the source of the big boom. If there were two booms, they were close enough to sound like one. I live in the center of Polk County.
Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are banned from space.
Kinetic weapons are not.
It would have returned earlier, but the GSV (System Class - Special Circumstances) “Hubris Knows No Bounds” bound from Altair was delayed by a small brush fire war and had to wait until the locals were eliminated with a liberal Canister Anti-Matter dusting of their so-called Orbitals administered by the famous GOU/PS (Abominator Class) “Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints”. Special Circumstance had no comment.
The cargo of rare earths was successfully displaced for previously agreed on amounts of gold-pressed latinum. No penalties were attached as the mitigating factors were beyond the control of the crew of the GSV (System Class - Special Circumstances) “Hubris Knows No Bounds”.
S-3 Viking.
“Kinetic weapons are not.”
Yes, they are. Some dweeb on the Internet might try to claim a certain provision only stipulates weapons of mass destruction, but the “peaceful purposes” clause stipulates otherwise.
Small guidance package is all that’s needed.
Plausible deniability for a vaporized impact weapon. Shooting star just happened to hit something...
They would be structural stiffeners unless one got dropped by accident!
My mistake.Thanks for the correction.
Then the thing to do would be to hit UN first then the target /s in case NSA is looking
Probably. When I lived in Daytona, every landing that came over, and that was most, was accompanied by a distinct boom-—boom. Always cool.
Click the order button ... 3 2 1 BOOM! ... order delivered!
Hi.
I’d wager there are cameras on board. High res, and infrared.
5.56mm
Do the UN first???
The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars states party to the treaty from placing weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise stationing them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications (Article IV). However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit and thus some highly destructive attack strategies such as kinetic bombardment are still potentially allowable. The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and that space shall be free for exploration and use by all the States.
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