Secret Air Force space plane, X-37B, lands in California after 15-month mission

reply to post by Dizrael


The average backyard astronomer probably doesn't have a clue what they're looking at. The serious backyard astronomer, or professional astronomer would be able to figure it out. I just don't think they'd bother to say anything, since it's well known that they are up there. There are at least one or two launches a year that are labeled as classified satellites. So what would be the point of saying anything, unless it was obvious that it was some incredible new technology that people didn't know about.

Just hope it's not the fore runner to "kill shot", it didn't have any problems up there did it??

I hope not...because I don't want to hear they had to bring it down early or something.

reply to post by timetothink


The X-37B? Not only did they not bring it down early, it stayed up six months longer than it was designed for. It was designed to stay in orbit 270 days, this mission lasted 469 days, and could have gone longer.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Ok...that's good to hear...

Just reminded me of that "space shuttle" type craft being brought down to earth before the kill shot in those predictions.

Though the Air Force has emphasized the goal is to test the space plane itself, there’s a classified payload on board — a detail that has led to much speculation about the mission’s ultimate purpose. Read more: www.nydailynews.com...

www.nydailynews.com...

"classified" great!!

reply to post by timetothink


It's not the X-37 that's classified. It's what it's up to while in orbit that's classified.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I know....it's under the DOD and they won't say what they were doing....could be satellites, weapons, who knows...like to know more about that bacteria that was mentioned before....similar to what happened recently when that other space craft fell to space with "bacteria" on it....hope they are wrong.

reply to post by timetothink


A bacteria/virus is actually very interesting in space. It changes pretty drastically in zero g. I'll have to find some of the pages where I read what happens to it, but it's really interesting to read. A little scary, but very interesting.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by timetothink

 

It's not the X-37 that's classified. It's what it's up to while in orbit that's classified.

Technically, only the "payload" is classified, not the shuttle of course, and not the actions of, or wherabouts of the shuttle during it's mission, only whatever was onboard.

Could be anything. We saw the satelite theory, a bacteria theory, heck maybe they were meeting up with an alien ship to return an alien prisoner. Only people with the need to know, ever will.

Thank you for posting this, I did not even know this UAV or I guess USV (unmanned space vehicle) even exists. I would love to know what it was doing up there for 15 months. It did not dock with the space station. It also looks like it has a payload bay like the old space shuttle. Makes me wonder.

reply to post by Opfor


It has a payload bay roughly the size of the bed of a pickup truck. It's pretty small, but still big enough to carry a decent sized payload.

Here is one of the articles on viruses in space.

www.wired.co.uk...

20th post, i can now start my own threads.

Oh and the space bacteria thing. Synchronized "bathing" of the bacteria on earth and in space, very cool concept, very scary thought of the effects of "zero gravity fed bugs" coming back to earth.

Gonna keep an eye on that subject though.

The best part is WE pay for it and WE have no right to know what it is.

reply to post by Lannister


There are some things happening that we don't NEED to know. I'm sorry, but while it would be great to know everything, some things just shouldn't be public knowledge. They put too many people and relationships between allies in jeopardy.

reply to post by Aim64C


If there is an admitted payload, and the payload is not known, it is secret.

As an example Wernher von Braun was the architect of the NASA rocket programme, in the Saturn V a rocket, and like all rockets also designed to have a payload, be it nuclear or otherwise. A payload is weight, and weight is the overriding factor for any rocket. It is misleading to say then, that any rocket was derived from nuclear programmes.

yes that is very weird they would not say what was onboard of this shuttle.



maybe they had people on board that they had once "black bagged" just to make sure they dont bump heads with TPTB ever again. I mean really, it wouldn't be a bad idea

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Lannister

 

There are some things happening that we don't NEED to know. I'm sorry, but while it would be great to know everything, some things just shouldn't be public knowledge. They put too many people and relationships between allies in jeopardy.

I can agree, but only to a point. There are some things that shouldn't be revealed to the public like if you're at war with a nation and those documents have something to do with it. You don't want to hand the enemy your secrets. But everything else needs to be as transparent as possible - atleast in the United States. We have a Government FOR the people BY the people. We do not work for our Government our Government works for us. Our founders didn't even want us to ally with nations. If we're paying for something and it has nothing to do with war, the people should know about it because we are our Government.

When Government fears it's people you have a democracy. When people fear their Government you have a dictatorship.

reply to post by Lannister


Except that even if you're not at war, you don't want to expose your secrets to everyone. If you ever DO get in a war with someone, you want to have some things up your sleeve that they don't know about and don't expect. Yes, things should be as transparent as possible, but when it comes to the military you need to keep things as close as possible.

A good example is the top speed of a ship. A Nimitz class carrier top speed is listed as 30+ knots. If you know the exact top speed, and when it left port, you can figure out pretty well where it is going to be at a given time. The key to survival for a lot of ships is being able to hide. The true top speed of a Nimitz is extremely close hold. I know that it's quite a bit faster than 30 knots, but barring me ever commanding a Nimitz, I'll never know just HOW much faster. Some things just HAVE to be held close.

Originally posted by Aim64C
reply to post by draco49

 

From what I understand, this is basically a space drone.

Which has already proven to be very useful. 15 months in space with very little to no need for supporting launches.

Makes the ISS look like a giant waste of money by comparison.

I think not putting people on it made it easier.....after all lots of "space drones" have ben in orbit longer than 15 months....

Originally posted by Lannister
The best part is WE pay for it and WE have no right to know what it is.

I said the same thing for years about "secret military bases"
I even told the IRS once a few years back when I went in for information.
"I want to know what my tax dollar goes to in these bases, I demand to know. If the government will not tell me
then they don't get any money"
I just got laughed at, and was handed how much I owed them.

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On topic: Has it really been 15 months since it went up? I would have sworn it only went up about 6.....wow time flies.