Posted on 05/24/2010 9:26:14 AM PDT by Willie Green
A small group of amateur skywatchers has managed to locate X-37B mini-space plane of U. S. Air Force. It was lofted on April 22 atop an Atlas launcher, without a pilot. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 is being flown under the support of the U. S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
When the space plane reached orbit it became identified as Catalog Number 36514, 2010-015A, OTV-1. After that it entered a cone of silence concerning any on-orbit duties.
A worldwide eyes-on-the-sky network of amateurs has managed to locate it, which according to them is in a 39.99 degrees inclination, circling the Earth in an orbit 401 kilometers by 422 kilometers. Greg Roberts of Cape Town, South Africa, a pioneer in using telescopic video cameras to track spacecraft revealed that the data may change a bit, as the orbit of the vehicle is better refined.
Roberts added that the amateurs who have sighted the craft have "absolute confidence" in their observations. He said, “One of our North American members got a brief view of what was suspected to be the space plane under somewhat difficult circumstances before it was no longer visible in the evening sky from the United States”.
Roberts also insisted that the skywatcher used binoculars and only one observation was not sufficient to define the spacecraft's inclination.
Your Google-fu is very powerful! (GMTA LOL)
Will Mr. Obama kill this program, too?
Yeah, I can look up all kinds of things. Hard to discuss something, if no one knows what one looks like. I didn’t recall seeing this aircraft. Not as sexy as I had hoped.
“Not as sexy as I had hoped.”
That’s what people are saying about 000ama?
“a pioneer in using telescopic video cameras to track spacecraft”
when can I buy that on ebay?
Where is the death ray housed?
wow. a $3000 camera. Maybe a few years after I graduate...
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