US Air Force's Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Passes 500 Days in Orbit

Space.com ^ | Aril 24, 2014 | Mike Wall, Senior Writer

[lbryce]

An unmanned military space plane has achieved a major longevity milestone, zipping around Earth for 500 days on a clandestine mission for the United States government.

The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane launched on its third and latest mission on Dec. 11, 2012. As of today (April 24), the vehicle has been aloft for 500 days — far longer than its officially stated maximum orbital lifetime of 270 days.

"Clearly, and understandably, the Air Force initially set the expected parameters [of the X-37B] conservatively, not really knowing what it could do until it was tested — which is what they are doing now," said Joan Johnson-Freese, professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. [Photos: The X-37B Space Plane's 3rd Mystery Mission]

"Personally, I think it's commendable that they are pushing it to the extent that they appear to be," Johnson-Freese told Space.com via email. "That's the only way to really know what it can do."

[mountainlion]

It is broke and they don’t dare fix it and give anything away so they are claiming records./s

[lbryce]

That’s exactly what I thought when reading this article.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Actually yellow and blue make grey, but don’t tell anyone.

[Tijeras_Slim]

“Look Charlie, there’s a kid in the wheel well.”

[FreedomOfExpression]

Space suits? Really?
Please tell me you forgot the sarcasm tag.

The X37B is unmanned.

[Born to Conserve]

“Those can’t be real space suits.”

Why would you think they’re space suits?

[Candor7]

X-37B aka Putin’s Surprise.

An Obummer drone strike from SPACE!

[Telepathic Intruder]

I’m assuming everyone here, notably yourself, is smart enough so I don’t have to use it. Those who aren’t can assume otherwise if they want.

[Telepathic Intruder]

I saw the picture before I read the explanation. A human character flaw, I admit.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Slight grammatical error which I’m certain you will ignore.

[jaydubya2]

Are they checking wheel wells for stowaways?

[Rio]

I wonder what altitude it was orbiting?

The orbit data is extracted from the following two-line orbital elements,

1 39025U 12071A   14106.35626708 0.00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    02
2 39025  43.5052 134.6527 0017808 302.3985  57.6010 15.57790517    08

Epoch (UTC):	16 April 2014 08:33:01
Eccentricity:	0.0017808
inclination:	43.5052°
perigee height:	382 km
apogee height:	406 km
right ascension of ascending node:	134.6527°
argument of perigee:	302.3985°
revolutions per day:	15.57790517
mean anomaly at epoch:	57.6010°

http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=39025

That's in the same neighborhood as ISS, I think.

[pfflier]

Those are evolutions of the rocket propellent handling suits that evolved from the Titan II ICBM program.

The propellants were hypergolic and consisted of hydrazine and either fuming red nitric acid or nitrogen tetroxide depending on the evolution of the system. Nasty stuff.

http://www.titan-ii.com/RFHCO.html

[Telepathic Intruder]

I think the Titan program was ended specifically because of the expensive and toxic nature of hypergolic fuel such as hydrazine. Scramjet tech seems like a perfect one to follow but I doubt Zero will support it in favor of every cent going to fuel government jobs and abortion clinics.

[tanknetter]

Recall that the Germans had several test pilots who literally melted from exposure to the nearly pure hydrogen peroxide used as fuel for the Me 163 Komet rocket fighter ...

[tanknetter]

Also, when they were being retired and cleaned up for museum displays, the shuttles were referred to as “Mach 25-capable Superfund sites.”

[FreedomOfExpression]

The rest of us are not telepathic, so it's hard to tell if someone doesn't know or if they are being sarcastic.
And you seem smart enough to know that you shouldn't assume.    :^)

[pfflier]

The Titan program was terminated specifically after the explosion in Damascas Arkansas. However the issues aassociated with the handling of the propellants always made the program problematic through it's lifecycle.

BTW I'm a Minuteman III weenie by training and we also had to deal with MMH and nitrogen teroxide.

[aegiscg47]

Definitely defense related. I've often thought it might have been testing a primitive orbital bombardment capability. A 50kg lead slug fired from that kind of orbit would destroy about a six block area. May explain what happened to several of those installations in Iran that got wiped out.

[Telepathic Intruder]

I had a boss that kept saying to assume makes an ass out of u and me (texting of course). I’ve been sarcastic before and gotten indignant responses, not just on the internet but in person. The thing about sarcasm is that you must fall short of crossing the line of being serious, or it’s no longer sarcasm. The line is variable, however, depending on the intelligence of the person receiving it. Any sarcasm can be misinterpreted by the average house plant.