After two years in orbit on its 3rd voyage the Air Force's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle landed back in California on the 17th of October, 2014. This vehicle, "resembling a miniature space shuttle"
(1) is the possession of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office and, according to officials from the previously stated organization, was being used to preform '''risk reduction, experimentation and concept-of-operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies'''
(1), however the craft's purpose remains a article of speculation. It has been theorized in the past that the craft's real mission was to shadow China's national space station, the Tiangong, as its flight path was closely correlated to that of the Tiangong
(2). The craft's mission has come into question for primarily over its designated orbit ,which is lower than that of most satellites and circles "with an inclination of 42.79 degrees with respect to the equator"
(2), compared to the usual military craft "orbit that circles the poles"
(2).
Do you feel it is really necessary to question this craft's purpose? If so, what may the military's purpose be for initiating such a project, and why would they feel the necessity to return the craft to Earth if it really was being used for an undisclosed purpose?
1 comment:
I love the idea of space travel, and hate the fact that we canceled our shuttle missions, but our shuttles were coming on in years and relied on some technology that seemed to stress controllers and astronauts. We have known of the existence of the X-37 and the B variant since the mid 2000's after Boeing was awarded the contract to build this wondrous space faring object. People who claim of its spying on China are paranoid, it is a glorified satellite that recorded plethoras of data during its two year voyage and if it happened to take photos of the Chinese station why should they care. Questioning is good, in fact its the best method in figuring out who is in charge, and stifling speech creates more problems than anything else so censorship should be refrained. Honestly this reassures me that we have not given up on space, and the fact the Air Force is involved just means they have more money in their budget to push such innovations. NASA has done us great but the DoD has pumped more cash into DARPA that have contributed 10x more to us as a society giving us increased freedoms (TOR, Internet, Unix) security(GPS, F-117), and ease of life(Siri and Gmaps ancestors), than NASA has, but NASA can still claim the moon landing, a wondrous human feat that still leave most in wonder today, that and memory foam.
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