Posted on 03/14/2010 12:35:29 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
secretive military spacecraft resembling a small space shuttle orbiter is undergoing final processing in Florida for launch on April 19.
The Air Force confirmed the critical preflight milestone in a response to written questions on Thursday.
The 29-foot-long, 15-foot-wide Orbital Test Vehicle arrived in Cape Canaveral, Fla., last month according to the Air Force. The OTV spaceplane was built at a Boeing Phantom Works facility in Southern California.
Managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the OTV program is shrouded in secrecy, but military officials occasionally release information on the the spaceplane's progress.
"It is now undergoing spacecraft processing including checkout, fueling, and encapsulating in the 5-meter fairing of the Atlas 5 [rocket]," an Air Force spokesperson said.
The 11,000-pound vehicle will launch inside the nose cone of the Atlas 5 rocket. Liftoff is currently set for 10 p.m. EDT on April 19.
The reusable spacecraft is more famously known as the X-37B. The design is based on the orbital and re-entry demonstrator initially developed by NASA, then handed over to the Pentagon.
The NASA version of the X-37 featured an equipment bay 7 feet long and 4 feet in diameter for experiments and deployable payloads.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency completed a series of approach and landing tests in 2007 using the White Knight airplane from Scaled Composites as a mothership.
It is easy to track the X-37's tumultuous history. NASA awarded the first X-37 contract to Boeing in July 1999, and the agency flew a series of visible atmopsheric tests on a scale model of the spaceplane in 2001. The X-37 began its transformation from a human spaceflight testbed to a military-run project when NASA shifted responsibility to DARPA in September 2004, a consequence of the space agency's new focus on lunar exploration.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Looks interesting.
(It’s not a secret if I’m looking at it and reading about it.)
Odd, that looks just like the “lifeboat” for the ISS - an automated re-entry vehicle that requires no pilot input.....
It is a platform for the Air Force to advanced payloads and advanced technologies into space, see how they fare then bring back to Earth for examination. I have also read that it can go to the Moon because of the Atlas 5 rocket. Its a direct desendant to the old Dyna Soar project of the 1960s.
It looks like an killer whale. Will they move the launch from Cape Canaveral to Sea World?
It has dual landing sites at Vandenberg AFB and Edwards AFB
Shhhh!
They have advanced from chimpanzee astronauts to Orca Orbiters.
It looks like a drone version of the space shuttle.
This vehicle is about 40 years overdue but better late than never. Last I read—Aviation Week, posted here—it had been canceled.
That explains the probe from Star Trek IV!
Don’t tell anyone about it....
Strange bird. How does it fly with so little wing surface??
Is that sucker manned or unmanned in this iteration?
Lifting body. They’ve been working on them for years. Remember Steve Austin, the Astronaut?
My guess would be VERY FAST with a glide ratio approaching that of a bent manhole cover.....
The spaceplane is unmanned.
Its called the Space Shuttle Jr.
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