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This NASA Marshall Space Flight Center image shows on-orbit functions for the reusable X-37 space plane.
NASA/MSFC
The U.S. Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane is nearing a
major milestone — one year of travel in Earth orbit, performing duties
in support of long-term space objectives.
The unmanned X-37B spacecraft —
flying a mission known as Orbital Test Vehicle 3 (OTV-3) — launched
into space atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station on Dec. 11, 2012. What payloads the space plane is toting
and the overall mission goals on its confidential cruise are classified.
This
same vehicle was flown on the X-37B program's inaugural flight back in
2010. That OTV-1 mission lasted nearly 225 days in orbit, gliding back
to Earth on autopilot over the Pacific Ocean and touching down at
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
An OTV-2 mission, which used a different X-37B space plane,
was lofted in 2011. That vehicle flew for 469 days, more than doubling
its sister ship’s space stay, concluding its mission by also making a
Vandenberg landing.
Altitude changes
A
global network of skywatchers has been keeping an eye on the robotic
space plane's movements during its three flights to date. Some veteran
observers, like skywatcher Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario in
Canada, have even captured video of the X-37B space plane in the night sky.
"All
three OTV missions maneuvered to change altitude at least once between
launch and landing. Between maneuvers, they made frequent small thruster
firings to counteract the effects of atmospheric drag, to maintain a
nearly constant altitude," said Ted Molczan of Toronto, a leader in the
worldwide community of satellite trackers.
Taking a look at the
military space plane's past flights and the present-day mission, Molczan
told SPACE.com that OTV-1 occupied a half-dozen different orbital
altitudes during its 225-day mission. OTV-2 occupied two different
orbital altitudes during its days aloft, accomplished by a series of
small thruster firings over a seven-week period. [Photos: Spotting Satellites & Spaceships from Earth]
"OTV-3,
as of day 343 in flight, has occupied two different orbital altitudes,
accomplished using standard Hohmann transfer maneuvers about 11 weeks
after launch," Molczan said in a Nov. 22 email.
Lifting-body design
The
two known X-37B space planes have been built for the Air Force by
Boeing Government Space Systems, with flights conducted under the
auspices of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office.
The 11,000-pound (4,990 kilograms) X-37B is one-fourth the size of an orbiter in the now-retired NASA space shuttle fleet but relies upon the same type of lifting-body design.
The
vehicle is 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and nearly 15 feet (4.5 m) wide
and has a payload bay that measures 7 feet (2.1 meters) long and 4 feet
(1.2 meters) wide. Traveling in low-Earth orbit, the space plane
operates from 110 miles (177 kilometers) to 500 miles (805 km) in
altitude.
Next-generation technology
According
to a Boeing fact sheet, each space plane is built with lightweight
composite structures, rather than traditional aluminum. A new generation
of high-temperature leading-edge tiles for the wings is utilized,
distinct from the space shuttle’s carbon leading-edge segments.
The
X-37B is outfitted with toughened uni-piece fibrous insulation
impregnated silica tiles, which are significantly more durable than the
first-generation tiles used by the space shuttle. Advanced conformal
reusable insulation blankets are used for the first time on the X-37B.
The
Boeing fact sheet also points out that avionics on an X-37B are
designed to automate all de-orbit and landing functions. Additionally,
there are no hydraulics onboard the winged vehicle; flight controls and
brakes use electromechanical actuation.
Air Force mission control
Mission
control for OTV flights are handled by the 3rd Space Experimentation
Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. This unit is billed as
the Air Force Space Command’s premier organization for space-based
demonstrations, pathfinders and experiment testing, gathering
information on objects high above Earth and carrying out other
intelligence-gathering duties.
While details are scant about the X-37B program,
a little light on the project may be shed during the National Space
Club'’s 57th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner, to be held next
March in Washington, D.C.
Slated to receive the General Bernard
Schriever Award at the event is Major Joshua Chumley, USAF, Commander,
Operating Location Alpha, 3d Space Experimentation Squadron, U.S. Air
Force Space Command.
Chumley is on tap to pick up the prestigious
award "for leading a selectively manned team responsible for operation
of the United States’ first unmanned, autonomous, reusable space plane —
the Orbital Test Vehicle, or X-37B," according to a National Space Club
press release.
Landing location?
Although
there’s no official word how long the OTV-3 mission will go, there has
been some talk that this craft may not land at California’s Vandenberg
Air Force Base.
The Air Force has been evaluating auto-piloting
the vehicle down at the space shuttle landing strip at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center, next door to its Cape Canaveral departure site.
Making
use of former space shuttle infrastructure is viewed as a possible
cost-cutting measure for the program, officials have said.
Leonard
David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five
decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission
on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrin's new book "Mission to Mars –
My Vision for Space Exploration" published by National Geographic.
The X-37B space plane and NASA's space shuttles have common roots, and it shows.
Boeing
The intriguingly long mission of the unmanned X-37B has come to a conclusion at last. But the mystery of the mission lingers on.
The
US Air Force space plane, one of just two X-37B vehicles in the
Pentagon's inventory, landed Friday morning under the auspices of the
30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after 674
days in space -- that is, 22 months.
And that's about all that the
space plane's handlers would say about the mission, aside from the
terse statement that it "conducted on-orbit experiments."
"The
mission is our longest to date and we're pleased with the incremental
progress we've seen in our testing of the reusable space plane," the Air
Force said in a statement.
The Air Force also said it plans to start the next X-37B mission sometime in 2015, launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Almost as remarkable as the length and the hush-hush nature of the mission is one of the signature skills of the Boeing-built X-37B -- the unmanned spacecraft flies autonomously on its return trip to Earth.
The
Air Force has said precious little -- ever -- about its X-37B missions,
leading to wide-ranging speculation about what the diminutive space
vehicle has been up to up there, or is building toward. Theories hit on
everything from terrestrial surveillance to satellite launches (or,
conversely, satellite killing) to weapons platform aimed at ground
targets.
Or it could be more mundane: these could simply be
shakedown cruises to see how a space plane, one with no human aboard,
fares on extended junkets into orbit and back. It can't be easy to work
all the kinks out of the algorithms that enable a space plane to
maneuver in orbit, and in re-entry and landing, without a human at the
controls.
The boilerplate description on the Air Force's fact sheet
is not exactly illuminating: "The primary objectives of the X-37B are
twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space
and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on
Earth."
Measuring 29 feet long, with a wingspan of less than 15 feet
and a cargo bay equivalent to that of a pickup truck, the 11,000-pound
X-37B looks like a junior version of NASA's space shuttles. That's not
really a coincidence, since both trace their roots to the space agency's
research into lifting-body flying machines. In fact, the X-37B program
was a NASA project until 2004, before it was shifted first to the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and then on to the Air Force.
This
was the third spaceflight of an X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test
Vehicle, since missions began five years ago. The first, which ended in
December 2010, lasted 224 days, and the second, which ended in June 2012, endured for 469 days, or a year and four months.
This latest mission
began December 11, 2012, when an Atlas V rocket carrying the space
plane lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
There
are two OTV craft in the X-37B fleet. The one that flew on the
just-ended mission is OTV-1, which also carried out the first of the
flights to date.
Confusingly the numbers in the the OT-x designations
seem to be used loosely both for the spacecraft (-1 and -2) and for the
missions (-1, -2, and now -3).
NASA last week said it has entered
into an agreement with the Air Force's X-37B program for use of the
Kennedy Space Center's Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) Bays 1 and 2 --
former space shuttle hangars -- to process the X-37B for launch. Boeing is performing construction upgrades in those facilities that are targeted to be complete in December.
But
the flights of the X-37B -- however many eventually take place -- could
just be the groundwork for the next generation of space plane.
In July, DARPA took a first step back into the game, announcing the start of design work toward the XS-1,
which also would be a reusable unmanned vehicle for "aircraft-like
access to space." The agency didn't mind mentioning potential payloads:
"XS-1 seeks to deploy small satellites faster and more affordably, and
develop technology for next-generation hypersonic vehicles."
It's
probably not too much of a surprise that Boeing is in the mix, winning a
$4 million preliminary design contract for its concept of the XS-1.
(Teamed with Boeing is Blue Origin, the spacecraft-minded company owned
by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.) The other two Phase 1 contracts went to
Northrop Grumman (working with Virgin Galactic) and to Masten Space
Systems (working with XCOR Aerospace).
Jonathan Skillings is managing
editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET
since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service,
PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a
schoolteacher, and will always be a die-hard fan of jazz, the brassier
the better.
See full bio
No
one seems to know much about the Air Force's X-37B secret space plane
except that it seems to be working exactly as designed. The unmanned
Boeing-built craft, which resembles a miniature space shuttle, returned
to Earth on Friday after nearly two years — 674 days, to be exact — in
space. It's the X-37B program's third mission to space and by far the
longest.
The plane landed at 9:24
a.m. local time on Oct. 17 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California,
the Air Force's 30th Space Wing announced.
"The 30th Space Wing and
our mission partners, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, Boeing, and
our base support contractors, have put countless hours of hard work into
preparing for this landing and today we were able to see the
culmination of that dedication," Colonel Keith Balts, 30th Space Wing
commander, said in a release. "I'm extremely proud of our team for
coming together to execute this third safe and successful landing.
Everyone from our on console space operators to our airfield managers
and civil engineers take pride in this unique mission and exemplify
excellence during its execution."
But just what did the X-37B do up there? The Air Force isn't telling.
To be fair, experimental
military-funded space projects aren't exactly the kind of thing you
expect the brass to talk about in public. Inquiries over the years, and
this week by NBC News, have always been met with polite but firm "no
comment."
What is known is that
the X-37B has no human pilot, or at least not one in its windowless
cockpit. It's operated remotely and lands on its own. The details of its
launches aren't secret, but nor are they particularly interesting: it
rode an Atlas V booster on Dec. 12, 2012, and assumed orbit about 180
miles above the Earth. That last part, notably, was figured out by a
network of curious astronomers, not released publicly by the Air Force.
The plane's size means
there isn't room on board for much except avionics equipment, fuel for
the thrusters, and a mysterious cavity about the size of a truck bed
that could contain all manner of sensors, experiments, hardware —
perhaps even a plant or some bacterial colonies. Of course, no one can
be sure what's inside.
Until the Air Force
decides it's time to spill the beans, the X-37B will keep its secrets,
even if they happen to just be ordinary testing of still-classified
radio hardware or radiation-resistant materials. For now, the X-37B (and
its siblings, however many there may be) will be locked away at
Vandenberg Air Base in California, waiting, perhaps, to break its own
record for days in orbit.
