X-37B Robotic Space Plane Demonstrator To Launch April 19
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 16 of March , 2010 at 12:40 am
It’s been decades in the works, but an honest to goodness robotic space plane is about to make it to orbit. The X-37B is a demonstration vehicle designed for testing in space, and will be launched next month on top of an Atlas V rocket. It’s 27 feet long, 15 feet wide, weighs 5 tons, and that’s about all we know at this point. A bit confusingly, the X-37 was developed from the X-40, a smaller air-dropped gliding demonstrator that had its first flight back in 1998.
It’s worth noting that this is a US Air Force project, not a NASA project. In fact, the branch of the air force that is working on the X-37B is the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, whose mission is “to expedite development and fielding of select Department of Defense combat support and weapon systems by leveraging defense-wide technology development efforts and existing operational capabilities.” Understandably, this has prompted a few concerns. More, after the jump.
“The problem with it [X37-B] is whether you see it as a weapons platform,” said Theresa Hitchens, former head of the Center for Defense Information’s Space Security Program, now Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, Switzerland. “It then becomes, if I am not mistaken, a Global Strike platform. There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about Global Strike as a concept,” Hitchens told SPACE.com.
On the other side of things, NASA is taking a substantial interest in the X-37B test. They’ve partnered with the Air Force Research Lab to help explore the potential for a reusable commercial launch vehicle, although it seems like NASA has pretty much given up commercial launch development, instead choosing to invest in (and eventually rely upon) the private sector.
The X-37B launch is scheduled for April 19 from Florida. It will spend an unspecified amount of time in orbit (probably just a few days, although it has an endurance of 270 days, go robots), and then land autonomously at Vandenburg Air Force Base.
[ X-37B ] VIA [ Spaceflight Now ] and [ Space.com ]
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Comment by Joey1058
Made Friday, 19 of March , 2010 at 2:31 pm
It kind of makes sense now. Obama pulls the plug on the Constellation program, effectively hamstringing NASA. They become the plaything of labs and universities while the Air Force takes over the brunt of military launches. Keep the public out of space for a little while longer while bots move in as perfect substitutes.
