Pentagon looking for it's own mini space station

www.thedrive.com...

This is interesting. An optionally manned space habitat completely in military control. Would also be the first manned spacecraft in US Space Force inventory.

Interesting to see who gets the contract to fly astronauts to this station, if it ever comes to that.

a reply to: Sublant

Awesome!

I wonder if it will end up being a base for the X37-B successor or something similar, the aircraft stay in space but return to the Space Station for refueling and changing the mission payload.

This way you dont have to keep launching the X37-B and recovering it, and if it ever had a military capability its pretty much persistent.

I hope they get some better suits than Space-X crap - so much opportunity to get a nails looking space suit and they fooked it up with those boots and suits.

originally posted by: Forensick
a reply to: Sublant

Awesome!

I wonder if it will end up being a base for the X37-B successor or something similar, the aircraft stay in space but return to the Space Station for refueling and changing the mission payload.

This way you dont have to keep launching the X37-B and recovering it, and if it ever had a military capability its pretty much persistent.

I hope they get some better suits than Space-X crap - so much opportunity to get a nails looking space suit and they fooked it up with those boots and suits.

The problem with that is lifting the fuel to orbit.

Far better strategy to fuel on the ground.

I would think that a shuttle style vehicle would be better than a orbiting station that has a limited shelf life due to maintaining it.

a reply to: billxam

I did think that but looking at the size of the aircraft and assuming it glides back to earth I wondered how much fuel it needed. Also, I understand it uses a real nasty fuel (Hydrazine??) which could have benefits fueling in space but also a significant encumbrance with the lack of dexterity of the astronauts and carrying a few flights worth of the stuff on top of a rocket.

Just seems a lot of effort having a pentagon space station and for what?

They tried this already.



Manned Orbiting Laboratory

It was replaced by better unnamed satellites.

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
They tried this already.

Manned Orbiting Laboratory

It was replaced by better unnamed satellites.

I think you might mean "unmanned."

a reply to: Sublant

If you are going to militarize space and it is going to happen sooner or later so the US getting there NOW is not only correct it is absolutely necessary then you have to think in NAVAL term's.

You need fleet's of craft, drones or manned it does not matter, a space station or large craft is an essential in the future and it would be nice to have one now regardless of whether it be manned or autonomous, a space station with sentry satellites armed with defensive capability's to protect against anti satellite systems' being targeted at them or the main station, ferry's to carry supply's, armament's and even possibly crew so a new space shuttle but perhaps one based more on the Hotol concept that would do away with the need for disposable rocket system's.

Perhaps even build a ring/wheel station that would at allow long term healthy space occupation by human being's since the centrifugal force of it's rotation would counter the usually deleterious affect of long term zero gravitational environment's upon an human crew members physiology.

Look at it this way, if the US does not do it now or within the next five to ten years then China and possibly even India may just beat them to it, China would of course have a long term plan to colonize the moon and build bases there so that is another target the US has to get back to right now.

But you will have the penny pinching politician's whom may as well be working AGAINST the USA's future national interests and national security whom will claim it is a waste of your tax payers money and whose legacy has already held the US back..

So it is a necessity.

Good luck to the US in it's endeavour's and I hope that space force becomes a genuine reality.

HQ for our Space Force.

Something like the "Zeus Cannon" from the movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

We can make Rods from Gods Great Again.