Boeing X-37B autonomous space shuttle launched last night, due back 'whenevs'
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 23rd 2010 5:14PM
posted April 23rd 2010 5:14PM
Boeing's X-37B, the test craft that's been kicking around for the last decade or so, has finally made it into orbit. Formerly a NASA project, we've heard little about the thing since it passed into DARPA hands in 2004 -- and statements like those of the Air Force's Gary Payton don't help much: "in all honesty, we don't know when it's coming back for sure." How's that for autonomous? Also uncommented upon, yet tantalizing, are the military's intentions for the unmanned vehicle, which can remain in orbit 270 days at a time. Spy drone? Orbital weapons platform? Plaything for our future robot overlords? (Let's hope it's not the last one.) The success of the mission will depend on a couple things, namely: how the return trip goes (it should make it back to California's Vandenberg Air Force Base via autopilot... sometime) and whether the thing can be re-launched quickly enough. Ideally, the craft should be ready for another flight in fifteen days. Another test is planned for 2011.[Thanks, One Love!]
Sky rockets in flight. Afternoon delight. Afternoon delight.
@n0ne
AUTO... let's go back to earth...
@n0ne
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone...
On a side note, does anyone know if Kentuckey still sells chicken nuggets?
@n0ne
And so the launch of skynet begins.
@n0ne
Karl?
... you have a head like an f'ing orange!
@savagemike You got any lemon cake? We can play some billiards afterwards. Just don't squeeze my head...
@n0ne
I bet google is behind this...
@n0ne It was a very cool launch. I watched it from my folks house. You could see the protective shell around the vehicle reflecting light as the pieces tumbled back to earth.
@n0ne
1. Spend billions of dollars on project.
2. Throw it in space.
3. ?????
4. Loss :(
@Sogeking
Invader Zim will come back, it won't be a loss.
@Donloki
I just saw the after-effects from Orlando. Looked up and there was a curly cloud in the sky. I realized that it must have been the X-37B flight, as Popular Mechanics reported that it would launch mid-April.
Did anybody see a CIA agent with magic parachute and grappling hook riding on top of it? He might try to fly it into something
@fischju
Ahhh Rico ^_^
@fischju
I hope he had a cosmonaut suit as well
ha the way they talk about it, it seems like they just flung the thing into space. "eh lets just see how long it takes to make it back around"
@knewman
that is, quite literally, how it's supposed to work.
they probably don't even monitor the thing, it's totally autonomous.
it'd be great to turn this thing into a supply shuttle for orbital platforms. several countries make one, they can ship stuff into space lightning-fast and don't risk any pilot's lives. Win-win to me
@knewman
Boy will they have egg on their faces when it decides it doesn't feel like coming back.
I wonder. What happens if something were to go somewhat wrong? Wrong to the point of not being able to make it to Vandenberg for a landing due to early re-entry or something. Is it autonomous enough to land at say... JFK, Miami Int'l, etc? Or is it gonna be a supersonic missile speeding out of control?
@Darkseider Everything that goes up is attached to this evil red button with the words "self destruction" written underneath it - as seen in the movies.
@Bahumbug
so we have to blow up the space station too if it doesnt come back? bummer
@weirdo557 Well our (US) last space station that came down killed a cow. The new one is quite a bit bigger.
@Darkseider Article says it can also land at Edwards AFB in Cali if needed.
I don't like it.
@Dr Blight, because it's proof of Skynet?
@Dr Blight
No, because it's going to catch some space plague and crash in the US. Then we have space plague everywhere!
@Dr Blight
So... Left4Dead IRL?
@Dr Blight Don't worry. Under Obama's plan, we won't use any of them.
It's autonomous in that it's gonna come back when it damn well pleases to.
Space Bomber!!
Toby Ziegler got fired for a story like this.
@d0mth0ma5 "Launch of secret US space ship masks even more secret launch of new weapon" - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7106714.ece
300 years later we're going to end up with the next Voyager 6 on our hands. Dibs on the femmebot interface.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
Arrows from the sky, green becomes brown.
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department." - Wernher von Braun
Was Mark Wahlberg on that thing?
Not enough fanboyism in this sector-
Whatcha got on this, Airbus?
@Arch Stanton
Airbus kills this it's just waiting until theirs never has to come back unless it wants to!
@Arch Stanton Airbus? Nothing. They only make commercial planes. But maybe you meant EADS, the owner of Airbus...
And before anyone says Airbus Military, thats a sub division created only for the A400M transporter plane.
@Bahumbug EADS sounds like AIDS lol
@Arch Stanton forget Airbus... Lockhead Martin RULZ!!
lol
@brokensticks
You mean, 'Lockheed'?
So, anyone found launch photos? I found plenty of news sites acknowledging launch, but nobody has pictures? The NASA page doesn't say squat. Boeing's page has a press release about launch again with no launch pictures. Was the launch a mass hallucination? Was it a stealth shuttle? Is it all just maind control?!? I need my tin foil hat!
@kenjennings Its no different than all those other military launches you never see a photo of or those commercial launches that actually carry military payload - it looks all the same unless it blows up halfway into orbit.
@kenjennings
It's a space version of the UAVs fying over afganistan and iraq. In space you can get to different locations much faster than being 30,000 feet in the air.
@kenjennings
http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/PhotoGallery/Photo_gallery.shtml
@kenjennings It wasn't even on the public schedule of launches. A shame, as I would've stepped outside to watch.
@marco916 Yeaaaaaah. Thanks.
Wow. Big payload. Itty bitty rocket.
The United Launch people make videos way more cooler than NASAs.
http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/Video/videos/AV/av_otv1_lh.wmv
Star Wars?
@techlord
Yeah, it seems like it might be related some how.