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ICYMI: A 'Back to the Future' jacket and the super-secret space shuttle returned
While manned shuttle missions ended back in 2011, the US government is still sending reusable spacecraft into orbit. This past weekend the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle returned from its super-secret two year mission. Speculation about what the craft was doing up there all this time ranges from; testing autonomous navigation system to evaluating if the X-37B is suitable for surveillance.
Secretive drone will test materials for future spacecraft
While the Boeing-built X37B drone's nature remains mysterious, we at least know that it's a test-bed for futuristic space tech. When it launches on May 20th, it won't only be testing a new type of Hall effect thruster for the Air Force, it will also be carrying a collection of 100 different materials that can potentially be used for future spacecraft, rovers, rockets and other space hardware. The project is called Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space (METIS), and it was designed to build on the data gathered from previous testing onboard the ISS. Any material meant to be used in space has to undergo rigorous testing first before it's incorporated into billion-dollar machines and vehicles.
Secretive space drone used to test futuristic propulsion system
Ask someone in the street what they know about the Air Force's top-secret space plane and you'll probably wind up getting pinched by the NSA. Nobody can claim to know much about the X-37B, beyond the fact that it's the force's long-term space vehicle, capable of staying in orbit for more than a year at a time. In the run up to the craft's next jaunt around the planet, however, someone has let slip the details of an experiment that it'll be carrying out. According to Spaceflight Now, Air Force officials have revealed that the autonomous drone will be used as the test-bed for a new type of Hall effect thruster.
Happy Biiiirthday Mr. USAF X-37B Robot Space Plane
The X-37B was only meant to stay up in space for a gestational nine months, but a full year has now passed since launch and the US Air Force apparently has little interest in bringing its baby home. On the contrary: according to Space.com, the plan is to send up another unmanned space plane to keep the X-37B company on its [CLASSIFIED] missions. Whatever it's getting up to in that airless playground, it must be doing something right. Air Force Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre says the craft is "setting the standard for a reusable space plane and, on this one-year orbital milestone, has returned great value on the experimental investment." Which is a fine way of saying [STILL CLASSIFIED].
Boeing's new unmanned X-37B launches into orbit, won't come home until it finds Major Tom
Model X-37B might look familiar to you -- it was the name of an autonomous space vehicle that took flight just about a year ago, orbited for a whopping eight months, and then successfully returned to our planet all by itself. Now a new version of the X-37B has blasted off to hang outside of the atmosphere for a while. The spacecraft left Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 41 down in Florida and hurtled to a low-Earth orbit with help of a Atlas V rocket. Boeing isn't saying exactly what it's doing up there, but we suspect this spaceship knows which way to go.
