X-37B Spaceplane photographed in orbit

a reply to: mightmight

i have found the craziest things in the links on the bottoms of various patents (not this but others)

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: Zaphod58

It should be noted the payload bay is 4 ft by 7 ft.

Very small.

It's large enough to carry 2 missiles armed with high yield warheads, it could potentially evade a missile defense system and wipe out any two new York sized cities you care to mention.

It could also carry a radar jammer or high definition camera over any location on earth.

It's a fantastic spy or weapons platform

a reply to: AaarghZombies

Nuclear weapons placed in orbit are banned. The US does a really good job at adhering to that sort of thing. For that, Russia has as well. The risk is too great for the benefit.

a reply to: AaarghZombies

It also makes an outstanding research platform.

a reply to: Zaphod58

ijust want to know what they are making up there.

a reply to: penroc3

They're testing a lot oif things. The current flight is testing advanced cooling systems.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It has been acknowledged or at least very strongly implied as a surveillance platform as well: thank ex SecAF Wilson for that.

a reply to: anzha

It's also done interesting experiments into the optical field.

a reply to: Zaphod58

And orbital adjustment.

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: Zaphod58

It has been acknowledged or at least very strongly implied as a surveillance platform as well: thank ex SecAF Wilson for that.

for reference
www.military.com...

With the gov having it do their testing with it,its no wonder cubesats etc are getting more popular with the civilian market..

a reply to: Blackfinger

cubesats are popular because they are damned cheap. A fully decked out cubesat is rarely above a million. Mostly its in the $500k range.

www.parabolicarc.com...

She's back.

a reply to: anzha

wonder what she grew up there

a reply to: penroc3

Nothing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

semiconductor manufacturers would give their first born child to get access to a zero g semiconductor crystal lab



i also think its interesting the ISS was fitted with X Ray data receiver transmitters

a reply to: penroc3

Unless it's a military program, they aren't going to get it from the X-37. They were carrying several micro satellites this time.

a reply to: Zaphod58

i wonder if russia's Russian Doll satellite had anything to do with demonstrating they could inspect sats with their own micro sats.

granted on orbit inspection and retrofit/refuel is nothing new that tied with some new type of thrusters and crypto stuff might be interesting.

i always imagined these micro sats finding their target sat and attaching them self to it and trying to get into the data stream ot maybe even deorbiting/graveyard orbit them with thrusters on the microsats.


god i would love to know what's what with real orbital adjustment tech.

a reply to: Zaphod58
I see it landed the other day after 780 days up there

www.airforcemag.com...
Impatient to see a follow-on of the X-37 B , becoming a F-37 A