Mystery Robot Space Plane Still Flying, 7 Months Later

Fox News ^

[Neil E. Wright]

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. –  The secretive X-37B robotic space plane is about to set its own space-endurance record on a hush-hush project operated by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.

The craft, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle-2, was boosted into Earth orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 5. Tomorrow (Nov. 30), the X-37B spacecraft will mark its 270th day of flight — a lifetime in space that was heralded in the past as the vehicle's upper limit for spaceflight by project officials.

"It's still up there," U.S. Air Force Maj. Tracy Bunko of the Air Force Press Desk at the Pentagon, told SPACE.com, noting that project officials planned for a 9- month-plus mission, "so we're close to that now."

The X-37B's staying power is made feasible by its deployable solar array power system, unfurled from the vehicle's cargo bay. [Photos: Air Force's 2nd Secret X-37B Mission]

Built by Boeing's Phantom Works, the X-37B spacecraft is about 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide. It has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.

The X-37B resembles a miniature version of NASA's space shuttle. Two X-37Bs could fit inside the 60-foot (18-meter) cargo bay of a space shuttle.

[org.whodat]

Lift is lift meat head and your pipe dream is your pipe dream.

[Kevmo]

Except for one friend of mine, who found it fascinating. That guy is currently one of the richest men on the planet. Hmmm.....

***A true out of the box thinker, eh? Was that McCaw?

[JRandomFreeper]

And lift has nothing to do with exoatmospheric, ballistic orbits. The only reason it has wings is returning to atmosphere, when it is empty.

/johnny

[org.whodat]

Take your tin foil hat off, the air force does not know where the Pakistani. Bases are and they have the gps location, and you think they can fire an uninvented weapon with pin point accuracy from outer space. How do. They solve the. Reentry heat problem. You are one funny fellow.

[denydenydeny]

you think they can fire an uninvented weapon with pin point accuracy from outer space. How do. They solve the. Reentry heat problem.

You answered your own question. The Rods From God platforms would not travel in "outer space" but in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

[org.whodat]

LOL, none of which is on the little craft they are trying to get back.

[org.whodat]

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/lzvfi/how_can_a_rod_dropped_from_orbit_have_as_much/

[Paradox]

***A true out of the box thinker, eh? Was that McCaw?

Actually, it was someone else. He already has his own space company too (Blue Origin).

[Paradox]

How do. They solve the. Reentry heat problem. You are one funny fellow.

They solve it how they always do. Engineering. Let me ask you this, do you know the exact cause of atmospheric heating on reentering vehicles?

[Kevmo]

skin friction and wave drag