Posted on 03/22/2012 9:00:20 PM PDT by U-238
What payloads are aboard the Air Force’s X-37B space plane, which has been orbiting the Earth for more than a year, remains top secret.
Gen. William L. Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, was peppered with questions about its purpose at a gathering of Washington, D.C.-based defense reporters March 22. He remained tight-lipped about the mystery spacecraft’s mission, but did say that the service has no intention of purchasing any more of the winged, reusable vehicles, which resemble a smaller version of NASA’s now returned space shuttle.
“It is doing very well on orbit,” he said. “It has had a successful mission and we are very happy with it.”
The Air Force wants to continue to use the X-37B, he added. The Air Force has not determined a reentry date yet for the spacecraft currently circling the globe, he added. The Air Force has two vehicles, which are designed to remain in orbit for about 270 days. The first X-37B launched April 22, 2010, and remained in orbit until Dec. 3 that year. The second was sent to orbit March 5, 2011, and has now long exceeded its original 270-day specifications.
The Boeing-built spacecraft began its life as a NASA program, with the Air Force contributing some development funds. It was originally conceived as a vehicle that could robotically refuel or repair satellites. Once NASA decided to drop the program, it was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and then to the Air Force, where it became a top secret, or “black” program.
Shelton said there are no plans to develop a larger X-37B spacecraft.
The Air Force is looking to “sustain this capability for quite sometime.”
“There certainly is no plan that we can afford to increase the fleet size,” he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaldefensemagazine.org ...
Remember nthe old Discoverer program? Originally publicized as resarch satellites. With recoverable capsules. Those were our first generation reconsats.
Uh-huh.....
They can possibly buy more X-37s through the USAF black budgets.
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