US Air Force to launch mysteryrobotic spacecraft this month
Source: Agencies |
April 5, 2010, Monday
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AFTER a decade of development, the United States Air Force this month plans to launch a robotic spacecraft to conduct technology tests in orbit and then glide home to a California runway.
The ultimate purpose of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle and details about the craft, which has been passed between several government agencies, however, remain a mystery as it is prepared for its April 19 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
"As long as you're confused you're in good shape," said defense analyst John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org. "I looked into this a couple of years ago. The more I studied it, the less I understood it."
The launch culminates the project's long and expensive journey from NASA to the Pentagon's research and development arm and then to a secretive Air Force unit.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the X-37 program, but the total has not been released.
Air Force spokeswoman Major Angie I. Blair released the launch date, landing sites and a fact sheet, and said more information would be released soon.
While the space shuttles have been likened to cargo-hauling trucks, the X-37B is more like a sports car.
Built by Boeing Co's Phantom Works, the 5-ton craft is 3 meters tall and 9 meters long, with a wingspan of less than 4.5 meters. It has two angled tail fins rather than a single vertical stabilizer.
Unlike the shuttle, it will be launched like a satellite, housed in the nose of an expendable Atlas V rocket.
The Air Force released only a general description of the mission objectives: testing of guidance, navigation, control, thermal protection and autonomous operation in orbit, re-entry and landing.
The mission's length was not released but the Air Force said the X-37B can stay in orbit for 270 days.
The significance of the X-37B is unclear because the program has been around for so long, said Peter A. Wilson, a senior defense research analyst for the RAND Corp.
As NASA anticipated the end of the shuttle, the X-37B was viewed as a working prototype of the next-generation design of a fully reusable spacecraft, but the space agency lost interest and the Air Force picked it up, Wilson said.
"It's a little puzzling as to whether this is the beginning of a program or the end of one," he said.
The ultimate purpose of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle and details about the craft, which has been passed between several government agencies, however, remain a mystery as it is prepared for its April 19 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
"As long as you're confused you're in good shape," said defense analyst John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org. "I looked into this a couple of years ago. The more I studied it, the less I understood it."
The launch culminates the project's long and expensive journey from NASA to the Pentagon's research and development arm and then to a secretive Air Force unit.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the X-37 program, but the total has not been released.
Air Force spokeswoman Major Angie I. Blair released the launch date, landing sites and a fact sheet, and said more information would be released soon.
While the space shuttles have been likened to cargo-hauling trucks, the X-37B is more like a sports car.
Built by Boeing Co's Phantom Works, the 5-ton craft is 3 meters tall and 9 meters long, with a wingspan of less than 4.5 meters. It has two angled tail fins rather than a single vertical stabilizer.
Unlike the shuttle, it will be launched like a satellite, housed in the nose of an expendable Atlas V rocket.
The Air Force released only a general description of the mission objectives: testing of guidance, navigation, control, thermal protection and autonomous operation in orbit, re-entry and landing.
The mission's length was not released but the Air Force said the X-37B can stay in orbit for 270 days.
The significance of the X-37B is unclear because the program has been around for so long, said Peter A. Wilson, a senior defense research analyst for the RAND Corp.
As NASA anticipated the end of the shuttle, the X-37B was viewed as a working prototype of the next-generation design of a fully reusable spacecraft, but the space agency lost interest and the Air Force picked it up, Wilson said.
"It's a little puzzling as to whether this is the beginning of a program or the end of one," he said.
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