Air Force prepares launch of X-37B set for December

Valley Press on ^ | Sunday, August 3, 2008. | ALLISON GATLIN

[BenLurkin]

The Air Force is preparing to test an unmanned spacecraft in orbit, with a launch scheduled for December.

The X-37B is designed to perform long-duration testing in low-Earth orbit of new technologies. The unmanned vehicle will carry experiments into space, then return with them to Earth.

The vehicle... operates autonomously in orbit and for re-entry and landing. This first orbital flight test of the vehicle will be used to determine the capabilities of the craft, said an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Brown.

It is part of a former NASA program that was cut as the space agency focused on its new space exploration goals. The X-37B will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on an Atlas 5 rocket and land on the runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Santa Maria.

The launch slot was originally slated for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a robotic mission to map the surface of the moon in preparation for future manned lunar missions. That mission, however, was moved to a late February launch window. Piggybacked on the same launch will be the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, a mission to impact the moon in search of water ice.

The NASA launch delay left room in the launch complex schedule for the X-37B to take off in December.

The X-37B is the orbital version of the X-37 approach and landing vehicle, built by The Boeing Co. in Palmdale. That vehicle was used to test the autonomous landing capabilities of the unmanned design.

...

DARPA contracted with Scaled Composites in Mojave for use of the WhiteKnight aircraft for the drop tests. The futuristic WhiteKnight is best known as the carrier aircraft specifically designed to air-launch SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded manned space program to successfully launch an astronaut to suborbital space.

[BenLurkin]

Space Ping

[TLI]

"Above: Aiming to fill an Air Force requirement to place a satellite in space and return within one orbit, a mission once considered for the Shuttle, the operational X-40A would have been capable of carrying up to 1,200lb of cargo for tactical reconnaissance, refilling gaps in satellite constellations (eg Global Position System), providing identification and surveillance of other space objects or as an escort ship for in-orbit assets. (Photo, NASA-DFRC). Below: Engineers and technicians assess the exterior integrity of the X-37B as it is made ready for a simulated test. To be launched in early 2008, the vehicle will provide the Air Force with a research platform for evaluating the optimum configurations of a definitive aerospace delivery vehicle. Autonomy will be a key part of the systems design. (Photo, USAF)."

[OCC]

This is good news, especially after the Falcon-1 failure yesterday.

[OCC]

OK, how about this?

[decimon]

< Rant>

Killing the rocket plane (Dyna Soar) program was the dumbassiest thing ever.

< /Rant>

[ReformedBeckite]

Sounds like they are developing a space version of the SR-71.

[Robert A Cook PE]

OK, OK.

A couple questions.

1. The paragraph after the excerpted bit indicates that Scaled Composites did a drop test (from what altitude ?) - I'm guessing like the 747 “drop tests” used to test the shuttle's glide performance. True?

2. If this is the X-37B, what happened to the X-37A? Successful? Crashed? Never built/flown?

3. Why does the photo of Boeing’s X-40 used for X-37B? Boeing can't type the Wright numbers on their planes any more? 8<)

[OCC]

1. True.. did several captive carry tests and one drop test, not sure from what altitude.

2. X-37A was used to test automated landing systems, X-37B will actually fly in space.

3. The X-40 was actually a sub scale model of the X-37, I’m sure the numbers being out of order had something to do with funding/contracts.