This is the amazing Lockheed Martin SR-72—the space Blackbird

a reply to: Soloprotocol
A high speed recon capability is useful since satellites are very predictable in their orbits and take lots of time to get over the same target area again. You can plan around that.
Of course you can built satellites with maneuvering capability but since you can refuel them their endurance is rather limited and once you get spotted in another orbit you're back to square one. You can try to make satellites stealthy but this is rather difficult, costly and you'd never know if it really works against near peer opponents.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
reply to post by grey580

 

By 2018 my right unmentionable. I'm willing to put money it's flying right now and has been for years. Which means it's going to have an incredibly successful and fast test program.

See this thread for more

Its 2018

originally posted by: mightmight
a reply to: Soloprotocol
A high speed recon capability is useful since satellites are very predictable in their orbits and take lots of time to get over the same target area again. You can plan around that.
Of course you can built satellites with maneuvering capability but since you can refuel them their endurance is rather limited and once you get spotted in another orbit you're back to square one. You can try to make satellites stealthy but this is rather difficult, costly and you'd never know if it really works against near peer opponents.

Could the X 37 not do those things you mention,...with a bit of tweeking here and there. 37,000 Kpm is not to be sniffed at.

I realy don't understand Lockheed, they communicate a lot about the SR-72 since 5 years for now saying it is not in the works ?? So where is going the enormous black budget if this is not on plane like SR-72 ? .
Its not a good communication too in the direction of China and Russia, they can think " " hey they don't have hypersonic technology ready so going at full speed on it to gain the superiority on them ""

We'll get to see it at Donalds parade, He'll be sitting in, waving like a demented chimp, it as it's towed down the street.

originally posted by: Soloprotocol

Could the X 37 not do those things you mention,...with a bit of tweeking here and there. 37,000 Kpm is not to be sniffed at.

The only difference between a satellite and the X-37B in LEO is the return capability of the X-37B. If you want to generate delta v and achieve a different orbit you need an engine consuming fuel. The X-37B is cabable of modest orbit changes (as has been observed in the past) but likely has only a very limited fuel supply.
The X-37B is probably less suited for this than certain satellites which carry much more fuel. And the X-37b can be track as well as anything upthere. Private spotters are one thing but you can eb sure that russian and chinese space surveillance routinely tracks every move that thing makes.

originally posted by: mightmight

originally posted by: Soloprotocol

Could the X 37 not do those things you mention,...with a bit of tweeking here and there. 37,000 Kpm is not to be sniffed at.

The only difference between a satellite and the X-37B in LEO is the return capability of the X-37B. If you want to generate delta v and achieve a different orbit you need an engine consuming fuel. The X-37B is cabable of modest orbit changes (as has been observed in the past) but likely has only a very limited fuel supply.
The X-37B is probably less suited for this than certain satellites which carry much more fuel. And the X-37b can be track as well as anything upthere. Private spotters are one thing but you can eb sure that russian and chinese space surveillance routinely tracks every move that thing makes.

What's it getting up to then.?

a reply to: Soloprotocol
Mostly testing stuff. The X-37B offers the opportunity to get exotic materials or tech into space, leave it upthere for however Long you like, return and analyze it. Better to do it this way than have your multi billion satellite fail because you couldnt test the materials or technology used in the operating environment.

Whats publicly known is that OTV-4 was testing the XR-5A Hall thruster and various materials for NASA.
OTV-5 flew with the ASETS-II (whatever that is) and deployed some nano satellites.
Outthere theory is that they use it to grow crystals for highly advanced optical lenses in zero gravity as well - but the truth is usually more mundane.