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Second X-37B launch tomorrow!

Neat stuff!

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Secret Space Plane to Launch Tomorrow On Second Secret Space Mission | Popular Science

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Secret Space Plane to Launch Tomorrow On Second Secret Space Mission

By Rebecca Boyle

Three months after its first mission ended, the military is launching another X-37B space plane on Friday, in a second classified mission for the X-37B program. If the weather holds up, the second X-37B orbiter will launch Friday afternoon on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, according to launch manager United Launch Alliance.

Air Force officials said the plane’s first flight last year was a success, and they wasted little time in organizing the second trip, which involves a different orbiter.

The snub-nosed, shuttle-esque craft shares some characteristics with its human transporter cousins, including vertical takeoff and horizontal runway landings. But the X-37B is designed to launch inside the nose cone of a rocket and stay in orbit for several months, powered by solar energy.

The first X-37B, named Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1), launched on an Atlas V rocket April 22, 2010, and returned home Dec. 3. The vehicle conducted on-orbit experiments throughout its 225-day voyage, and finally fired its engine to perform an autonomous re-entry, landing at Vandenburg. This flight will use a second plane, called OTV-2.

The space planes’ missions are classified, but the Air Force has said they should help engineers test and demonstrate new technologies, like guidance and navigation systems and new materials.

Some space watchers think the X-37B is a spy craft, however. Shortly after OTV-1 launched, amateur astronomers spotted it between 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south latitude, a path that sends it flying over hot spots like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea. It orbits about 255 miles up and it circles the Earth every 90 minutes, the astronomers said.

As in the past, the military and ULA are keeping mum about the new mission. We’re just excited to see whether any intrepid astrophotographers can catch it in action.

Wow. Not much of a secret, if they're sending out press releases.

Cool stuff, though!

Yeah, I'm guessing there was (1) no way to hide it given the FL launch location and (2) benefit from reminding NK/Iran/etc. who's boss by flying spacecraft over their heads.

The fact that it is unmanned enables "shrinkage" into a rocket.

Thanks for the post. Very cool.

they know it will be closely followed - not just the launch, but those with the capability to do so will track the orbit

no one knows what packages it will carry, or which orbits are "real" and which "fake"

Plus there's the whole "gee whiz, the Air Force is really open about what they're doing so I guess we should always trust what they say, huh?" aspect. That sets (gullible) people up for easy acceptance of future reports. For example they tell someone,"yeah, that flying saucer you saw? It's just swamp gas" and that person goes, "well, the Air Force was really up front about everything else so I guess they'd have no reason to lie... Okay, swamp gas it is".

I guess there really are some people who buy into that, so that's why they do it. Or at least it's one benefit of doing it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kach22i (Post 5880070)

It looks small.

Without the humans, it can be small and carry a bunch. Life support systems, human design, have been the bane of manned space flight.

A lifting body (of which I am familiar) would be hard to first package, and then re-entry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seahawk (Post 5880081)

As I understand it a lifting body is much more compact, which is why the International Space Station has one.

Some how I confused this project with the X-33 or maybe even another project. I'm sort of blindsided by this, still absorbing it.

http://wn.com/VentureStar

Quote:

Originally Posted by kach22i (Post 5880098)

Kach,

It is cool stuff and I have no prior or current knowledge of the project. In aero, however, lift is lift: Lifting bodies (per Barnaby Wayfan [sp?]) are not a static design.

Powered LB's would have a different aspect than purely gliding LBs, which have been around for a long time.

I do love this stuff.

X-38.......................made LIFE back in 1999
The X 38 Crew Return Vehicle Glides - Photo - LIFE

File:X38 NASA JSC DSCN0164.JPG - Wikimedia Commons
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...C_DSCN0164.JPG

Quote:

X38 NASA JSC DSCN0164.JPG

NASA X-38...
English: The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) was a prototype for a wingless lifting body reentry vehicle that was to be used as a Crew Return Vehicle for the International Space Station (ISS). The X-38 was developed to the point of a drop test vehicle. Its development was cancelled in 2002.

Didn't I see that thing flying at Oshkosh a few years back?

This isn't the one they flew into the ocean yesterday, is it? Nope, just checked, it was a different expensive fail.

The one that failed yesterday was call the glory hole satellite, lots of folks in san fran and gonna be bummed. Well, even more than usual. ;)

Quote:

NASA's $400 Million Glory Satellite Lost in Pacific Ocean
Published March 04, 2011

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – There will be no glory for NASA's Glory satellite today.

A rocket that blasted off early Friday carrying the $424 million Glory Earth-observation satellite failed to reach orbit, NASA said, and has most likely crashed into the ocean.

In a press conference early Friday morning, Omar Baez, NASA launch director, explained the space agency's theory on the rocket.

"All indications are that the satellite and rocket are in the southern Pacific Ocean," Baez said. "And that's all I have for you."

Rich Straka of Orbital Sciences Corp., the private company responsible for the launch, had few details to add: "Right now we're crunching the data, but there really isn't enough data to say anything more than the fairing didn't separate."

A Taurus XL rocket blasted off carrying NASA's Glory satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base early Friday March 4, 2011.

A Taurus XL rocket blasted off carrying NASA's Glory satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base early Friday March 4, 2011.

Ron Grabe, executive vice president with the company, described it as a "tough night for all of us." The teams involved are devastated, Grabe said, comparing this latest loss to a similar incident from a few years ago.

The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off about 2:10 a.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base, officials said. But NASA said in a brief statement that a protective shell or "fairing" atop the rocket did not separate from the satellite as it should have about three minutes after the launch.

That left the Glory spacecraft without the velocity to reach orbit, NASA launch commentator George Diller said.

"The flight was going well until the time of fairing separation," Diller said. "We did not have a successful fairing separation from the Taurus and there was insufficient velocity with the fairing still on for the vehicle to achieve orbit."

The status of the flight wasn't immediately clear and flight officials didn't immediately respond to calls for further comment.

Glory was launched on a three-year mission to analyze how airborne particles affect Earth's climate. Besides monitoring particles in the atmosphere, it will also track solar radiation to determine the sun's effect on climate change.

The $424 million mission is managed by the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Friday's launch came after engineers spent more than a week troubleshooting a glitch that led to a last-minute scrub.

Glory was supposed to study tiny atmospheric particles known as aerosols, which reflect and trap sunlight. The vast majority occurs naturally, spewed into the atmosphere by volcanoes, forest fires and desert storms. Aerosols can also come from manmade sources such as the burning of fossil fuel.

NASA suffered a mishap two years ago when a global warming satellite also destined to join the Earth-observation network crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after launching from the same kind of rocket that carried Glory. An accident board was formed to investigate and corrective action was taken to prevent future problems. A duplicate is now scheduled to fly from Vandenberg in 2013.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

I seem to remember the last time they launched a Taurus rocket in 2009 it failed in exactly the same way.
Close to a $billion dollars in taxpayer money not including the huge cost of the rockets, right down the tubes.

I think I'll go to the beach today and throw a bunch of my money into the pacific just to save NASA the trouble.