X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV)

[archipeppe]

Here my personal contribution about the subject:

 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Only just been reading the beginning of this thread:

On 7 April 2006, as part of the Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV), the X-37A was released from Scaled Composites’ White Knight vehicle at an altitude of 11.3 km to glide back to Edwards AFB in California. During the landing it rolled off the runway, damaging the nose wheel. Earlier, on 2 September 2004, 21 July 2005 and 24 March 2006 captive flights with the White Knight vehicle had been conducted.
Following that the program moved from Mojave to Palmdale, California where, again using the White Knight, five or more additional flights were performed, at least one of which is believed to have been a freeflight with a successful landing.
Does anybody know the dates of these flights.

Can't help with dates but Alan Radecki has posted a picture (attached) on Wikipedia showing WhiteKnight's mission stickers. This at least confirms number of captive carries and free flights (and the 'crash' landing!).

 

[Steve Pace]

The X-37B is in orbit...

SP

 

[sublight]

Here we go with the press again.... Its almost as if the Air Force paid a PR firm for this stuff....

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2010/04/23/starr.mystery.plane.cnn

Its funny that CNN makes such a huge deal about it being classified, yet has never had a single story on the likely dozens of black craft that go "bump" in the night....

 

[blackstar]

Its funny that CNN makes such a huge deal about it being classified, yet has never had a single story on the likely dozens of black craft that go "bump" in the night....

Wanna bet?

The difference is that this one is interesting--it has wings.

 

[sublight]

Its funny that CNN makes such a huge deal about it being classified, yet has never had a single story on the likely dozens of black craft that go "bump" in the night....

Wanna bet?

The difference is that this one is interesting--it has wings.

The difference is that they had footage of this one handed to them. They didn't even have to send a crew out and try...

 

[sferrin]

Its funny that CNN makes such a huge deal about it being classified, yet has never had a single story on the likely dozens of black craft that go "bump" in the night....

Wanna bet?

The difference is that this one is interesting--it has wings.

The difference is that they had footage of this one handed to them. They didn't even have to send a crew out and try...

Anybody see anything on the HTV-2 in the MSM?

 

[sublight]

Its funny that CNN makes such a huge deal about it being classified, yet has never had a single story on the likely dozens of black craft that go "bump" in the night....

Wanna bet?

The difference is that this one is interesting--it has wings.

The difference is that they had footage of this one handed to them. They didn't even have to send a crew out and try...

Anybody see anything on the HTV-2 in the MSM?

Not unless it was the real meaning of the Gates "prompt global strike reference".... ;D

Didn't it fly somewhere yesterday?

Yes its clear now, the Air Force is all "Hey, look at the X-37B" so we wont notice the HTV-2.....

(sferrin, I am just being silly and not mocking you)

 

[sferrin]

Its funny that CNN makes such a huge deal about it being classified, yet has never had a single story on the likely dozens of black craft that go "bump" in the night....

Wanna bet?

The difference is that this one is interesting--it has wings.

The difference is that they had footage of this one handed to them. They didn't even have to send a crew out and try...

Anybody see anything on the HTV-2 in the MSM?

Not unless it was the real meaning of the Gates "prompt global strike reference".... ;D

Didn't it fly somewhere yesterday?

Yes its clear now, the Air Force is all "Hey, look at the X-37B" so we wont notice the HTV-2.....

(sferrin, I am just being silly and not mocking you)

Didn't take it that way. Figured we didn't see it from the MSM because it wasn't spoon-fed to them.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Its funny that CNN makes such a huge deal about it being classified, yet has never had a single story on the likely dozens of black craft that go "bump" in the night....

Wanna bet?

The difference is that this one is interesting--it has wings.

The difference is that they had footage of this one handed to them. They didn't even have to send a crew out and try...

More likely is that the difference is that this one is *real.*

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

And on that note, the X-37B crosses from unbuilt and/or unflown status to FLOWN.

 

[GTX]

If you want a laugh, read this and especially the comments.

Regards,

Greg

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Oh you mean the frakkin hippies that think the X-37B is the begining of some space war? Oh sure!

Yeah OK. It's an X-37, not a frakkin X-wing or Viper.

Some people.

 

[Orionblamblam]

If you want a laugh, read this and especially the comments.

Aaron of Perth Posted at 3:40 PM April 22, 2010
This is frightening news.

Snerk.

just the facts mame of melbourne Posted at 4:01 PM April 22, 2010
spy and weaponisation - and America thinks it has the right to be the world police - well I say if it's spying on Australia - we should shoot it down, if it's a threat to Australia/the rest of the world we should shoot it down.

Fnark!

Nick Mulgrave Posted at 4:21 PM April 22, 2010
Another step closer to the destruction of the human race, and life on the planet as we know it. I for one would like to express my sincere hope that this launch fails catastrophically.

Haw!

It's gratifying to see that the US does not hold the monopoly on ignorant moonbats.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Haha!

 

[sublight]

Oh you mean the frakkin hippies that think the X-37B is the begining of some space war? Oh sure!

Yeah OK. It's an X-37, not a frakkin X-wing or Viper.

Some people.

I am tellin you, its some kind of propaganda thing to send a message to Iran or somebody....

From the article:
And unfortunately, that's all we can tell you, because the unmanned spacecraft, which looks like a small shuttle, is one of the US military's most tightly guarded secrets.

Really? Because there couldn't possibly be any other secret stuff flying out of area51....

How easy would it have been for the Air Force to say it was a research craft like they did with the SR71 and many other projects?
Very easy.

But they did not. Why?

 

[GTX]

Yes, we have our own fair share of kooks...

Regards,

Greg

 

[Orionblamblam]

I am tellin you, its some kind of propaganda thing to send a message to Iran or somebody....

A propaganda thing that was started the better part of 20 frikken' years ago? Rockwell filed the patent for the thing back in 1993... back when there *was* a Rockwell.

Because there couldn't possibly be any other secret stuff flying out of area51....

Very likely not. What's the point in flying secret stuff out of one of the most watched air bases on the planet?


The X-37 does not add payload capability; it subtracts from it. It is not a launch vehicle; it is a reusable payload shroud. It does not make space weaponization easier; it just makes the recovery of small payloads easier (small payloads that now require larger launch vehicles). Anyone who thinks that the X-37 and vehicles like it are dangerous weapons is a MORON.

 

[prolific1]

Dude...how'd you make the type that big? That's friggin' cool. ;D

 

[LowObservable]

No chance of this thing carrying weapons, nosir....

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3Afabd254e-f731-492c-963b-e7726ffeb04e

See the image half-way down.

Interesting post aside from the cock-up on the launch site. In fact I remember seeing a computer animation of a REFLY/X-37-type vehicle taking out a TEL, sometime in the late 1990s.

I suspect that the reason for the secrecy (although it's more "not talking about it" than secrecy) is that nine-tenths of the missions for which this kind of vehicle is useful are sneaky (like doing a very low recce pass when the bad guys are not expecting it) or nefarious (disabling a satellite when it's on the other side of the planet from its unsuspecting owner) and would be upsetting to the many people who still think that space is some weapon-free haven.

Much of this is a hangover from the very successful Soviet/Useful Idiot propaganda from the Reagan era, where only a fascist McCarthyite scumbag would have dared suggest that the Soviet space program was about anything except peace, love, rainbows and kittens.

 

[Byeman]

nine-tenths of the missions for which this kind of vehicle is useful are sneaky (like doing a very low recce pass when the bad guys are not expecting it) or nefarious (disabling a satellite when it's on the other side of the planet from its unsuspecting owner)

Both missions don't require a reusable spaceplane and would be easier with standard spacecraft.

 

[Ian33]

Sure its old school 1998 images, but it shows some intent to weaponise the X-37B or its siblings.

 

[Orionblamblam]

No chance of this thing carrying weapons, nosir....

Sure, it can carry weapons. Looks like maybe one Atlas V/X-37 combo could carry a whole *two* warheads. Now... imagine you took the controls, electronics and ACS system out of the X-37, leaving the wings, fuselage, tail, and TPS at home, and wrapped a bunch of warheads around *that*. Somehow I suspect you'd be able to orbit a hell of a lot more/bigger warheads, no?

The only weapons it'd make sense to use with the X-37 are those that can go in its payload bay. Putting warheads on the *outside* of the X-37 doesn't make sense, since you have to dump them before re-entry. And I'm reasonably certain that a thermonuclear friggen' bomb is going to cost substantially more than the replacement cost of the relevant bits *inside* the X-37.

The image showing the X-37 releasign a weapons module from inside its payload bay doesn't make sense... those RV's would be *tiny.*

 

[Orionblamblam]

Dude...how'd you make the type that big?

When you post, there are three lines of "icons" above the text box. Line just above has the smilies. Line above that includes picture insertion and whatnot. Line above *that* starts with a B, ends with an A. The second to last,

, changes the size of the text. The default is 10 pt; simply go in and change that. The "MORON" above was in 60 pt font. For those dumbasses who see the X-37 and some sign of evil American hegemonic DOOM, 60pt font just ain't good enough... the text also needs to change color, flash at a seizure-inducing rate and leap off the screen, find these jackholes mothers and slap them repeatedly until they curse the day they inflicted such brain-dead unthinking meat puppets onto the world.

 

[bobbymike]

Orionblamblam - I personally hope for US technological superiority, I sleep better at night with X-37's circling the earth and HTV-2's impacting on the Kwajalein Atoll.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Orionblamblam - I personally hope for US technological superiority, I sleep better at night with X-37's circling the earth and HTV-2's impacting on the Kwajalein Atoll.

However... start the "countdown to cancellation" clock. You know it's coming...

 

[sublight]

these jackholes mothers and slap them repeatedly until they curse the day they inflicted such brain-dead unthinking meat puppets onto the world.

You keep thinking these people are being stupid all by themselves.
Contrast the Falcon launch on Thursday with the X-37 launch on Friday. They could have just as easily made the X-37 a low key affair but instead we have Air Force spokesman Gary Payton telling reporters things like “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back”...
The controversy isn't coming out of nowhere, the Air Force is creating it.

 

[Orionblamblam]

we have Air Force spokesman Gary Payton telling reporters things like “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back”...
The controversy isn't coming out of nowhere, the Air Force is creating it.

GASP! You mean that the people running a classified program didn't give all the details to the PR department??? Say it ain't so!!!!

 

[sublight]

we have Air Force spokesman Gary Payton telling reporters things like “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back”...
The controversy isn't coming out of nowhere, the Air Force is creating it.

GASP! You mean that the people running a classified program didn't give all the details to the PR department??? Say it ain't so!!!!

You're "angry", we get it already.....

 

[sferrin]

we have Air Force spokesman Gary Payton telling reporters things like “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back”...
The controversy isn't coming out of nowhere, the Air Force is creating it.

GASP! You mean that the people running a classified program didn't give all the details to the PR department??? Say it ain't so!!!!

You're "angry", we get it already.....

How do you get "angry" out of that? ???

 

[sublight]

we have Air Force spokesman Gary Payton telling reporters things like “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back”...
The controversy isn't coming out of nowhere, the Air Force is creating it.

GASP! You mean that the people running a classified program didn't give all the details to the PR department??? Say it ain't so!!!!

You're "angry", we get it already.....

How do you get "angry" out of that? ???

in addition to post 177 and 183...

 

[sferrin]

we have Air Force spokesman Gary Payton telling reporters things like “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back”...
The controversy isn't coming out of nowhere, the Air Force is creating it.

GASP! You mean that the people running a classified program didn't give all the details to the PR department??? Say it ain't so!!!!

You're "angry", we get it already.....

How do you get "angry" out of that? ???

in addition to post 177 and 183...

How do you get "angry" out of that? Looks more like contempt for hysterical, uninformed, blow-hards to me.

 

[flateric]

See the image half-way down.

AFAIK, this is PopSci rendering. But I've found bunch of other stuff from back 90s - beginning of 00s

 

[Orionblamblam]

we have Air Force spokesman Gary Payton telling reporters things like “In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back”...
The controversy isn't coming out of nowhere, the Air Force is creating it.

GASP! You mean that the people running a classified program didn't give all the details to the PR department??? Say it ain't so!!!!

You're "angry", we get it already.....

How do you get "angry" out of that? ???

Through the magic of "projection."

 

[Orionblamblam]

See the image half-way down.

AFAIK, this is PopSci rendering. But I've found bunch of other stuff from back 90s - beginning of 00s

Note that weapons-capable craft shown here are substantially larger than the X-37.

Still... I should probably fake up an image showing how the Apollo, Soyuz and/or Shenzou capsules could fit a few warhead. And for that matter, how many could fit in a Volkswagen Microbus? Clearly, anyone driving a hippiemobile is out to destroy the world!!!

 

[Avimimus]

Oh you mean the frakkin hippies that think the X-37B is the begining of some space war? Oh sure!

Yeah OK. It's an X-37, not a frakkin X-wing or Viper.

Some people.

Every new piece of technology has the potential to be weaponised. There were weaponisation proposals for the shuttle and the Saturn V. You can weaponise an ordinary garden variety of rake - albeit not very well.
However, if you scale it up 15% & straighten and reduce the number of teeth, you could get a reasonably lethal war trident.

I thought hippies were supposed to be naive little flakes who couldn't see the imminent threat of a weaponised Russkie Buran
Not trying to start any discussion of hippies (and their historical existence/non-existence etc.) - but, simply put, human history & past proposals certainly don't work to rule out future military applications of such technology.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Gregoriy,

I haven't seen those images from Orbital in a LONG time. Thanks for posting them. My question is was that Space Taxi mod concurrent with Orbital's X-42 proposal?

Avi, you're right. Anything can be weaponized.

Scott, I'd love to see that weaponized nuke-carrying Microbus some time.

 

[Vpanoptes]

Hello -
Another silly question/comment perhaps, but:

I notice on one of the PP slides it indicates a capability to deploy 13 personnel and equipment. While I am aware of (at least some of) and have a healthy respect for Marine Force Recon (and other SOF) capabilities, does it seem a bit of a stretch to imagine that 13 troops inserted anywhere (especially given the conditions necessary to land something like the X-37 or its postulated/projected bigger brethren) could really make a difference? Or is it just me? ???

 

[sferrin]

Oh you mean the frakkin hippies that think the X-37B is the begining of some space war? Oh sure!

Yeah OK. It's an X-37, not a frakkin X-wing or Viper.

Some people.

Every new piece of technology has the potential to be weaponised. There were weaponisation proposals for the shuttle and the Saturn V. You can weaponise an ordinary garden variety of rake - albeit not very well.
However, if you scale it up 15% & straighten and reduce the number of teeth, you could get a reasonably lethal war trident.

I thought hippies were supposed to be naive little flakes who couldn't see the imminent threat of a weaponised Russkie Buran
Not trying to start any discussion of hippies (and their historical existence/non-existence etc.) - but, simply put, human history & past proposals certainly don't work to rule out future military applications of such technology.

But the discussion is of the X-37B - the "rake" - not some 40-years-in-the-future derivative.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Vp,

You're absolutely right. The X-37 or any derivative would be the wrong way to get boots on the ground. You'd need a secured runway. One that's long enough for recovery.

Even with a VTVL ride like ROMBUS or the DC-X, insertion and extraction into an LZ is still a crap shoot at best.

Kinda hard to hide something with the IR signature of a small sun and the accompanying accoustics. That's a just screaming "AIM HERE" to every unfriendly in the area.

X-37 or any kind of spacecraft for that matter isn't really a good way to get those boots on the ground. Yet...

Now when somebody figures out an effective way to make those dropships from ALIENS, then we're in business.