The greatest most powerful country should regain shuttle capabilities with the boeing x37b by modifying it as required. America must remain preeminent in space & in other areas. NASA leadership & potus do not want the USA to be preeminent in space or in other areas. Preeminence is critical to the survival of this great nation! Wake up America, get the word out!

 

 

US Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane Passes 600 Days in Orbit

By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist   |   August 29, 2014 01:28pm ET 

 

An artist's illustration of the U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane in orbit. The solar-powered winged spacecraft has spent more than 620 days in orbit as part of the military's secret OTV-3 mission, which launched in December 2012. Credit: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center View full size image

The U.S. Air Force's mysterious unmanned space plane has winged beyond 600 days in orbit on a classified military mission that seems to have no end.

The X-37B space plane is carrying out the Orbital Test Vehicle-3 (OTV-3) mission, a long-duration cruise that marks the third flight for the unpiloted Air Force spaceflight program.

The Air Force launched the miniature space shuttle into orbit on Dec. 11, 2012 using an expendable Atlas 5 rocket. By the end of Friday (Aug. 29), the space plane had spent 627 days in orbit. That's one year, eight months, 19 days and counting, to be exact. 

"The Air Force continues to push the envelope of the solar-powered X-37B capabilities," said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. [Amateur Skywatcher Spots X-37B Space Plane (Video)] 

A secretive space plane

The reusable X-37B looks like a mini version of NASA's now-retired space shuttle. This space plane is 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 9.5 feet (2.9 m) tall, and has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet (4.6 m).

The X-37B's payload bay is the size of a pickup truck bed. In contrast, NASA's space shuttle payload bay could fit two X-37B space planes comfortably inside. At liftoff, the X-37B space plane weighs 11,000 lbs. (4,990 kilograms).

The key to the X-37B's longevity in space rests with its ability to use solar panels to generate power., the solar panels extend the craft's longevity. [How the X-37B Space Plane Works (Infographic)]

"While far above the longevity of any other reusable spacecraft, it is far below that of most U.S. satellites, which are built to last for years, even decades," Johnson-Freese told Space.com. "That certainly confirms the broad, officially stated goal of the X-37B as a test bed vehicle."

It's logical to assume that the classified payloads tucked inside the X-37B include new sensors and satellite hardware that will be tested, Johnson-Freese said. If so, then the more time on orbit, the more testing that can be done, she said.

"While the classified nature of the X-37B has raised some concerns about its intended operational purposes, technically, the program must be commended for doing something new … and successfully," Johnson-Freese said.

X-37B in flight: Three missions

The Air Force is believed to have only two X-37B space planes. These space planes have flown at otal of three missions, which are known as OTV-1, OTV-2 and OTV-3. ("OTV" is short for Orbital Test Vehicle.)

The first mission blasted off in April 2010, and the craft circled Earth for 225 days. The second X-37B vehicle launched in March 2011, performing the OTV-2 mission. This spaceflight lasted 469 days, ultimately landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in June 2012. That was the same landing site OTV-1 used after completing its mission.

The current OTV-3 mission is reusing the first X-37B space plane from the OTV-1 flight, showcasing the reusability aspect of the program.

The U.S. Air Force's classified X-37B space plane is prepared for its first spaceflight, OTV-1, in April 2010. The same space plane launched on the third X-37B mission, OTV-2, on Dec. 11, 2012. As of Aug. 29, 2014, the mission has reached 627 days in space and counting. 
Credit: NASA

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What's the mystery mission's secret?

General William Shelton (retired), former commander of the Air Force Space Command, has been a leader in rallying support for future of U.S. military space capabilities, including the X-37B robotic space plane.
Credit: Credit: U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Christopher Boitz

View full size image

Before retiring from the Air Force this month, Gen. William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command, remained bullish on the X-37B's hush-hush mission. [10 Most Destructive Space Weapon Concepts]

"I'll give you my standard line on X-37," Shelton told Space.com at the National Space Foundation's 30th Space Symposium in May. "X-37 is doing great. I can't tell you what it's doing, but it's doing great."

Meanwhile, Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems, the Air Force's supplier for the X-37B space planes, told Space.com that there was nothing it could share regarding the ongoing mission.

Military interests in space

While the purpose of the X-37B space plane program remains stealthy, the U.S. military spaceinterests are clearly visible.

In July, Shelton spoke at the Atlantic Council on the U.S. future in space, noting that "space forces are foundational to every military operation, from humanitarian to major combat operations. It really doesn't matter — space has to be there … [satellites must be] continuously deployed in place, providing communications, missile warning, navigation, space surveillance and weather services."

Traffic is building in space, as many new entrants have joined the ranks of spacefaring nations and "counter-space" capabilities (technologies to deny a nation's use of space assets) are becoming more concerning, Shelton added.

Shelton said that the U.S. Air Force Space Command is considering several space tracks, such as lowering the cost and complexity of new space capabilities.

"We're watching carefully as other nations significantly increase their investment in counter-space programs," Shelton said. "We absolutely must adjust our approach and response, and the time for those decisions is approaching very rapidly."

Will X-37B land in Florida?

The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office carries out the clandestine missions for X-37B space planes, the 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado handles mission control for OTV flights.

The first two OTV missions flew back to Earth on autopilot, each time touching down on a tarmac at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But that could change.

Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems has announced plans to consolidate its space plane operations by using NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a landing site for the X-37B. Earlier this year, Boeing announced plans to expand its presence in Florida by adding technology, engineering and support jobs at the space center.

As part of that Boeing plan, investments will be made to convert the former space shuttle facility, Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-1), to a structure that would enable the U.S. Air Force "to efficiently land, recover, refurbish, and re-launch the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV)," according to Boeing representatives.

At the time of the Jan. 3 announcement, this construction was to be completed by the second quarter of 2015, Boeing representatives said.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrin's 2013 book "Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration" published by National Geographic.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

 

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Date: June 3, 2015 at 12:04:12 PM CDT
To: bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com
Subject: Google Alert - keep the shuttle flying

	keep the shuttle flying Daily update ⋅ June 3, 2015
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	USA needs this capability Keep the shuttle flying Posted by keeptheshuttleflying.com at 4:21 AM ... Bob Thompson Observations---Essentially said Keep The Shuttle Flying · Automated Shuttle--Space ... Flag as irrelevant
	Fwd: X-37B. What the greatest & most powerful country on Earth should be utilizing as a shuttle ... Keep the shuttle flying The X-37B space plane is carrying out the Orbital Test Vehicle-3 (OTV-3) mission, a long-duration cruise that marks the third flight for the unpiloted Air ... Flag as irrelevant
	Fly Back Vehicle Keep the shuttle flying What is missing are the grand strategists and visionary leaders of the earlier generations. In the beginning there was Tsiolkovsky. Later Noordung ... Flag as irrelevant
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Fwd: Edwards Air Force Base: History & Missions

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 2, 2015 at 9:57:07 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Edwards Air Force Base: History & Missions

 

 

Edwards Air Force Base: History & Missions

by Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor   |   June 02, 2015 01:20am ET

 

Despite its robotic nature, the X-37B space plane received a warm welcome from Air Force crews at Vandenberg. Here, the vehicle appears to be undergoing safing procedures after landing on Dec. 3 at 1:16 a.m. PST (0916 GMT). Significant weathering, or discoloration, can be seen on the spacecraft's upper thermal blanket insulation. Credit: USAF/Vandenberg Air Force Base View full size image

Edwards Air Force Base is a U.S. military facility full of aerospace firsts. It was where the sound barrier was broken, where X-planes eventually flew more than six times the speed of sound, and where the first space shuttle mission landed.

Perhaps Edwards' best-known feature is a dry lakebed that dominates the base, which is located in the northwestern Mojave Desert in California. The lake is about 65 square miles, with an unusually flat and hard surface that is ideal for aircraft, according to the National Park Service. The lakebed is a playa, or pluvial lake, according to the base's website, and is the largest such geological formation in the world.

"Today, our combined workforce is still at the cutting edge of aviation technology, developing, testing and evaluating the newest weapon systems and aircraft to ensure reliability for America's war-fighters," according to the base's website. "Edwards is the test bed for today's premiere aerospace technology programs, including the Global Hawk, Hypersonic flight, and of course the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter."

Early history

The Edwards site was mostly unpopulated desert until the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876, according to Edwards' website. In 1882, the lakebed of Edwards (called Rodriguez Dry Lake at the time) was host to a water stop for the Santa Fe Railroad.

"Rodriguez" was later changed to "Rodgers" and then "Rogers." Around 1910, the Corum family settled on the edge of the lakebed and began organizing the scattered settlers. When the Corums opened a post office, the region was called "Moruc," or Corum spelled backward, to avoid confusion with Coram, Calif.

The area remained a collection of quiet homesteads until Lt. Col. H.H. "Hap" Arnold saw the lakebed and figured it would be a great spot for aircraft. He established the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range in 1933, which was upgraded to a military base during World War II. 

Combat flight crews trained there in B-24 bombers and P-38 fighter planes. Top-secret airplanes were also tested at Muroc Army Air Base; work that continued well past the conflict's end in 1945.

Renaming and reframing

The base underwent a name change in 1949 to honor an airman who died the year previously, Capt. Glen W. Edwards. Quickly, the natural lakebed and the talent of the local pilots attracted high-powered research to Edwards, providing a location where highly experimental aircraft could be tested. All of the United States' first generation of jets underwent testing at the base, according to Edwards' website.

"The success of these programs attracted a new type of research activity to the base in late 1946," the website states. "The rocket-powered Bell X-1 was the first in a long series of experimental airplanes designed to prove or disprove aeronautical concepts – to probe the most challenging unknowns of flight and solve its mysteries."

It also was a location where many aviation records were broken. A few major waypoints:

Breaking the sound barrier: On Oct. 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in an aircraft for the first time. He broke the barrier inside a Bell X-1 aircraft called "Glamorous Glennis," named after his wife. The milestone was kept secret for some time out of fear that the Soviets or others would take advantage.

X-plane research: The series of experimental planes (which began with the X-1 that Yeager piloted) has continued for many more generations, with most of the research taking place at Edwards, according to NASA. This included a series of flights to go far as much as six times beyond the sound barrier, culminating in the X-15 program that flew so high that some of its pilots went into space.

Landing the space shuttle: The space shuttle was an unusual spacecraft, in that it never flew an unpiloted flight in space. That was the job of John Young and Bob Crippen, two NASA astronauts who tested it out between April 12 and 14, 1981. Edwards was used as a backup landing facility and hosted dozens of other space shuttle landings.

The North American X-15 settles to the lakebed after a research flight from what is now the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Credit: NASA

View full size image

Modern days

Much of Edwards' work today remains under wraps due to the secret nature of its mission, but the base's website acknowledges that it has helped with efforts such as the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war of terrorism more generally.

One notable program was the single-seater Lockheed Martin X-35, which was tested at Edwards Air Force Base and is now used by the military under the name Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II.

"The turbojet revolution, the space revolution, the systems revolution and now the unmanned aircraft systems revolution have imposed seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Each barrier, however, has been overcome through a combination of technical aptitude, daring ingenuity and skillful management," according to Edwards' website.

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Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies | AgainstCronyCapitalism.org

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Lack of preeminence in space will be costly

Abandoning leadership in space will prove costly! SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 Abandoning USA Space Capability to others will Eliminate our Capability to Defend Ourselves Credit: americasuncommonsense.com 7. SPACE POLICY AND THE CONSTITUTION #1 Harrison Schmitt Former Senator Schmitt Finds New Space Policy Cedes Moon to China, Space Station to Russia, and Liberty to the Ages The Administration announced a new Space Policy in 2010, after a year of morale bending clouds of uncertainty. The lengthy delay, the abandonment of human exploration, and the wimpy overall thrust of the policy indicates that the Administration does not understand, or want to acknowledge, the essential role space plays in the future of the United States and of liberty. Antagonism against America's demonstration of predominance in space continues. Expenditures of taxpayer provided funds on space related activities find constitutional justification in Article I's power and obligation to "provide for the Common Defence." This power relates directly to the geopolitical importance of space exploration at this frontier of human endeavor. A vibrant space program sets the modern geopolitical tone for the United States to engage friends and adversaries in the world as well as building wealth, economic vitality, and educational momentum through technology and discovery. For example, in the 1980s, the leadership of the former Soviet Union believed America would be successful in creating a missile defense system because we succeeded in landing on the Moon and they had not. Dominance in space clearly constituted a major factor leading to the end of the Cold War. With a new Cold War looming before us, involving the global ambitions and geopolitical challenge of the national socialist regime in China, President George W. Bush attempted to put America back on a course to maintain space dominance. What became the Constellation Program comprised his 2002 vision of returning Americans and their partners to deep space by putting astronauts back on the Moon, going on to Mars, and ultimately venturing beyond. Unfortunately, like all Presidents since Eisenhower and Kennedy, the Bush Administration lost perspective about space. Inadequate budgeting and lack of Congressional leadership and funding during Constellation's most important formative years undercut Administrator Michael Griffin's effort to fully implement the Program beginning in 2004. Delays due to this period of under-funding have rippled through national space capability until we must retire the Space Shuttle in 2011 without a replacement to access to space. Now, we must pay at least $63 million per seat for the Russians to ferry Americans and others to the International Space Station. How the mighty have fallen. Not only did Constellation never receive the Administration's promised funding, but the Bush Administration and Congress required NASA (1) to continue the construction of the International Space Station (badly under-budgeted by NASA Administrator O'Keefe, the OMB, and ultimately by the Congress), (2) to accommodate numerous major over-runs in the science programs (largely protected from major revision or cancellation by narrow Congressional interests), (3) to manage without hire and fire authority (particularly devastating to the essential hiring of young engineers), and (4) to assimilate, through added delays, the redirection and inflation-related costs of several Continuing Resolutions. Instead of fixing this situation, the current Administration did not retain Administrator Griffin, the best engineering Administrator in NASA's history, and now has cancelled Constellation. As a consequence, long-term access of American astronauts to space rests on the improbable success of an untested plan for the "commercial" space launch sector to meet the increasingly risk adverse demands of space flight. Histories of nations tell us that an aggressive program to return Americans permanently to deep space must form an essential component of national policy. Americans would find it unacceptable, as well as devastating to human liberty, if we abandon leadership in deep space to China, Europe, or any other nation or group of nations. Potentially equally devastating to billions of people would be loss of free nations' access to the energy resources of the Moon as fossil fuels diminish on Earth. In that harsh light of history, it is frightening to contemplate the long-term, totally adverse consequences to the standing of the United States in modern civilization if the current Administration's decision to abandon deep space holds for any length of time. Even its commitment to maintain the International Space Station using commercial launch assets constitutes a dead-end for Americans in space. At some point, now set at the end of this decade, the Station would be abandoned to the Russians or just destroyed. What, then, should be the focus of national space policy in order to maintain leadership in deep space? Some propose that we concentrate only on Mars. Without the experience of returning to the Moon, however, we will not have the engineering, operational, or physiological insight for many decades to either fly to Mars or land there. The President suggests going to an asteroid. As important as asteroid diversion from collision with the Earth someday may be, just going there hardly stimulates scientific discovery anything like a permanent American settlement on the Moon! Other means exist, robots and meteorites, for example, to obtain most or all of the scientific value from a human mission to an asteroid. In any event, returning to the Moon inherently creates capabilities for reaching asteroids to study or divert them, as the case may be. Returning to the Moon and to deep space constitutes the right and continuing space policy choice for the Congress of the United States. It compares in significance to Jefferson's dispatch of Lewis and Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase. The lasting significance of Jefferson's decision to American growth and survival cannot be questioned. Human exploration of space embodies the same basic instincts— the exercise of freedom, betterment of one's conditions, and curiosity about nature. Such instincts lie at the very core of America's unique and special society of immigrants. Over the last 150,000 years or more, human exploration of Earth has yielded new homes, livelihoods, know how, and resources as well as improved standards of living and increased family security. Government has directly and indirectly played a role in encouraging exploration efforts. Private groups and individuals take additional initiatives to explore newly discovered or newly accessible lands and seas. Based on their specific historical experience, Americans can expect that benefits comparable to those sought and won in the past also will flow from their return to the Moon, future exploration of Mars, and the long reach beyond. To realize such benefits, however, Americans must continue as the leader of human activities in space. No one else will hand them to us without requiring a huge economic or political price. With a permanent resumption of the exploration of deep space, one thing is certain: our efforts will be as significant as those of our ancestors as they migrated out of Africa and into a global habitat. Further, a permanent human presence away from Earth provides another opportunity for the expansion of free institutions, with all their attendant rewards, as humans face new situations and new individual and societal challenges. Returning to the Moon first and as soon as possible meets the requirements for an American space policy that maintains deep space leadership, as well as providing major new scientific returns. Properly conceived and implemented, returning to the Moon prepares the way to go to and land on Mars. This also can provide an infrastructure for space exploration in which freedom-loving peoples throughout the world can participate as active partners. Again, if we abandon leadership in deep space to the any other nation or group of nations, particularly a non-democratic regime, the ability for the United States and its allies to protect themselves and liberty for the world will be at great risk and potentially impossible. To others would accrue the benefits—psychological, political, economic, and scientific—that the United States harvested as a consequence of Apollo's success 40 years ago. This lesson has not been lost on our ideological and economic competitors. American leadership absent from space? Is this the future we wish for our progeny? I think not. Again, future elections offer the way to get back on the right track. Tags: American Space Policy, Article I, Common Defence, Jack Schmitt, Moon Landing, National Security, Obama Administration, Space Program This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 9:32 pmand is filed under 1. new policy failures, SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, Space Policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Posted by keeptheshuttleflying.com at 9:24 AM Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook No comments: Post a Comment Posted by keeptheshuttleflying.com at 8:58 AM No comments: Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

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