Text Fwd: " 2nd US 'secret space warplane' now in orbit"

At the spaceplane-in-a-tin factory

* Text fwd by Kev Hall and Frank Cordaro

The Register, UK
Second US 'secret space warplane' now in orbit
Military minishuttle's mystery mission.......
By Lewis Page
7th March 2011 10:28 GMT

The second X-37B "secret space warplane" operated by the US military has successfully reached orbit at the beginning of a classified mission, whose intent and duration remain unknown.

The X-37B is a small unmanned space plane with a cargo bay said to be about the same size as that of a pickup truck. It is launched into space inside a fairing atop a normal launch stack, and on arrival in orbit deploys a solar array allowing a protracted mission (a Space Shuttle, which carried a crew and used fuel cells for power, could not stay up unassisted nearly as long).

The little spaceplane features a powerful engine allowing it to change orbit as desired – and the fact that it is reusable means that its operators are less constrained to save fuel in order to prolong lifespan as they would be with a normal satellite.

Having completed its mysterious mission, the X-37B furls its solar array, closes its payload bay and re-enters the atmosphere, gliding down to land autonomously on a runway just like the Shuttle, but without benefit of any human input. Like the shuttle it has delta-shaped wings which would seem to offer the same "cross-range" capability that the US military insisted upon for the bigger spaceplane: a capability intended for top-secret intelligence missions which would be extremely difficult for other nations to monitor – though in the event the Shuttle never actually flew such missions.

The initial X-37B mission lifted off in April last year and stayed in orbit for eight months before making a successful landing at the Vandenberg military space base in California.

According to a release issued by X-37B maker Boeing at the weekend, the second X-37B has now lifted off successfully from Cape Canaveral airforce station, taking off on Saturday at 5:46pm local time.

US airforce officials in charge of the project emphasise that the X-37B has many relatively humdrum uses. It furnishes a way of getting new technologies, or ones suddenly in demand, into space quickly: rather than building a custom satellite to carry, say, a new sensor, you simply slot it into an X-37B and send it up. The little spaceplane also offers a relatively inexpensive way of carrying out tests of new kit which offers some risk of not working: if the new gadget doesn't pan out, you don't need to write off a pricey satellite – and the original gear can be tweaked, rather than you having to build a whole new rig should you want to try your idea again.

But details of missions are kept secret and the X-37B is funded from the "black" classified budget. Furthermore if a reusable plug-in satellite was all that was required, it seems reasonable to suggest that it wouldn't need shuttle-style delta wings. If runway landing were preferred to capsule/parachute re-entry, a lifting body or stub wings would be more efficient.

Given all of this, then, people such as us here on the Reg aerospace desk will continue to speculate on more exciting missions for the X-37B until we hear from an authoritative source that these are not happening. ®

Kevin Hall
Senior Researcher
http://Antiwar.com
No weapons IN or war FROM space.
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
http://Space4Peace.org

Video Fwd: MILITARY SPACE PLANE UNDER DEVELOPMENT 군사 우주 비행기 개발 중

Bruce Gagnon blog, Oct. 18, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
MILITARY SPACE PLANE UNDER DEVELOPMENT
* CNN, Oct. 18, 2010



The Pentagon is now working on several versions of the military space plane. They are selling it to the public as the "successor to the space shuttle" but it clearly is to be an offensive system.

When the U.S. Space Command annually holds their computer war game against China, set in the year 2016, the first weapon that is used is the military space plane that flies throw space and then drops a devastating first-strike attack on China's small nuclear force.

While the Pentagon acknowledges that they don't expect each of the versions of the military space plane now under development to work, they do expect at least one version to become operational in years to come.

______________________________________________________
* Related blogs 관련 블로그들

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[밴던버그 엎데이트] 미 공군 대륙간 탄도 미사일 실험 괌 남서 쪽을 명중하다.

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비밀스러운 소형 왕복 우주선들과 스파이 위성들
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Text Fw: MILITARY SPACE PLANES - FIRST-STRIKE SYSTEMS

Bruce Gagnon Blog
Friday, April 23, 2010
MILITARY SPACE PLANES - FIRST-STRIKE SYSTEMS

The new military space plane, called the X-37B, was launched yesterday from Cape Canaveral strapped to an Atlas V rocket. The X-37 will spend up to 270 days in space before landing at Vandenberg AFB in California. The space plane will mostly fly on "autopilot" since there is no human inside the craft.

Meanwhile yesterday at Vandenberg AFB, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) also test launched another space plane - the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, known as the Falcon.

Analysts contend the Falcon is part of the Pentagon's effort to develop the capability to strike anywhere in the world with a conventional warhead in less than an hour - known as Prompt Global Strike.

Referring to the development of global strike weapons, the idea “really hadn’t gone anywhere in the Bush administration,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has served both presidents, said recently on ABC News. But he added that it was “embraced by the new administration.”

The purpose of the X-37B program is less clear, largely because it remains classified.

The Washington Times reports, "The actual expense [of the X-37] is hidden in the Pentagon's 'black,' or classified, budget - is likely to cost more than $1 billion. The launch vehicle alone - a two-stage, liquid-propelled Atlas V rocket - costs as much as $200 million. Ten years of development on the plane - as the project was shuffled from NASA to DARPA and finally to its current institutional home in the Air Force - is likely to have cost hundreds of millions of dollars more."

The development of these new space planes is one reason that the Obama administration and the Pentagon are eager to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles in Russia and China in the years to come. As key elements in the growing U.S. first-strike program, they become even more effective if the U.S. can get its potential rivals to reduce their nuclear retaliatory capability giving the Pentagon an ever greater chance of pulling off a successful decapitating attack.

Thus as the U.S. moves forward with these kinds of global strike systems it will be likely that Russia and China will be forced to respond by refusing to dramatically reduce their nuclear weapons and by developing new technologies to counter the U.S. program.

Text Fw:US to launch secret 'space warplane'

*Image source: same as the link
An artist's conception of the X-37B

* Forwarded by Bruce Gagnon on April 21, 2010

US to launch secret 'space warplane'
Mon, 19 Apr 2010
Press TV

The United States Air Force has announced that it will launch a secret space plane that has sparked speculation about the militarization of space.

The Pentagon has set April 21 [delayed until April 22] as the date for the launch of the robotic space plane known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), which is a reusable unmanned plane capable of long outer space missions at low orbits.

Since the nature of the project is shrouded in mystery, defense analysts allege that the US military is building the first generation of US 'space Predator drones' that will build up the United States' space armada, the Christian Science Monitor wrote in a recent article.

Military experts argue that the US Department of Defense would not have saved NASA's costly X-37B project, which had been scrapped, if it did not have a military application.

They say the US wants to maintain a leading role in space via the development of the new 'space weapon' at a time when other countries like China are expanding their space programs.

However, US military officials maintain that the X-37B will only be used for transporting payloads and facilitating space experiments.

The OTV is capable of supporting a range of tests, the Air Force spokesperson for the project said earlier at the 26th National Space Symposium.

"The first mission will emphasize proving technologies necessary for long duration reusable space vehicles with autonomous reentry and landing capabilities," Angie Blair added.

She went on to say that the "specific details of the OTV capabilities, limitations and vulnerabilities" remain classified.

The X-37B can stay at an orbit between 200 and 800 kilometers for around 270 days before landing automatically at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, reports say.

The location of the mission control center for the Boeing-made space vehicle is also a classified secret, but Blair says that Air Force Space Command's 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron (AFSPC) will run the operation.

Military space specialist Professor Roger Handberg, who is the chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, told Space.com that the X-37B project may signify continued U.S. Air Force interest in a rapid response vehicle along the lines of the long-proposed space maneuver vehicle.

He added that the project could be viewed "as the logical extension of the push into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) where vehicles used for observation have moved into weapon carriers and various other missions, many classified."

"From the perspective of international observers, especially in space-aspiring states such as China, the X-37B program just reinforces their view that the U.S. is pushing to gain first mover advantage in rapid response, including possible weaponization of space using this vehicle or a derivative," Handberg noted.

Political analysts say that the X-37B project could be interpreted as a violation of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 if the space plane is used for military purposes.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, officially known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, states that the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind; states shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner; the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes; astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind; states shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and states shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty states: "A State Party to the Treaty which has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by another State Party in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, would cause potentially harmful interference with activities in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, may request consultation concerning the activity or experiment."

In addition, a proposal has been put forward for a Space Preservation Treaty that would ban all space weapons, but no country has signed the treaty so far.

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)

Text Fwd: US Air Force, Boeing To Launch Unmanned Military Space Plane

* Text informed by StopNATO * on June 6, 2009

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/us-air-force-and-boeing-all-set-to-launch-unpiloted-military-space-plane_100201554.html
Asian News International, June 6, 2009
US Air Force and Boeing all set to launch unpiloted military space plane

Washington - The US Air Force and Boeing are all set to launch the X-37B - an unpiloted military space plane.

According to a report by Fox News, the winged craft, tucked inside the shroud of an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), will be boosted out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, orbit the Earth and then make an auto-pilot landing in California.

The X-37B OTV-1 (Orbital Test Vehicle 1) is currently on the launch manifest for January 2010, explained US Air Force Captain Elizabeth Aptekar, who works in media operations for the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.

“The vehicle is ready for the shipping process, which includes minor close-out activities,” said Aptekar. “The vehicle will ship at the conclusion of the pre-ship activities, which should be approximately 60 days before its launch date,” she added.

Years ago, the X-37B was originally slated to be deployed from the payload bay of a space shuttle.

But, following the tragic Columbia accident, the craft was transferred to a Delta rocket, and then later geared to be sent aloft via the Atlas V EELV.

While next year’s flight profile remains a bit hazy, reports have the X-37B under auto-pilot control zooming into Vandenberg Air Force Base for a landing, or perhaps at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

As a reusable space plane, the intent of the craft is to serve as a test bed for dozens of technologies in airframe, propulsion and operation, and other items in the hopes of making space transportation and operations significantly more affordable.

According to earlier press releases issued by Boeing, the X-37 orbital craft is capable of circling Earth for up to three weeks.

“Potential new commercial and military reusable space vehicle market applications for these technologies range from on-orbit satellite repair to the next-generation of totally reusable launch vehicles,” explained past Boeing-issued material.

The intent of the X-37B mission is to try out a wide variety of experiments and technologies, including a highly durable, high-temperature thermal protection system; storable, non-toxic liquid propellants; and important new aerodynamic features - all of which are applicable to future reusable space vehicles.

The vehicle is about 27.5 feet long with a roughly 15-foot wingspan and tips the scales at about 5 tons at liftoff.
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