1-They already have a U2 replacement. It's called Global Hawk. No pilot means no Gary Powers incident.2-The X-37 is a test vehicle for technologies that could be used for ASAT, satellite recovery, surveillance, space bomber, or yes, troop carrying. But one most not underestimate the futility of government procuring. 3-The Soviet Union thought Space Shuttle was created for these kinds of tasks, I mean why else would you want a vehicle that big, with that amount of crossrange, if you weren't going for a bomber or satellite recovery? Hah.
Jim.1. I expect to soon stick my 1/144 X-37 inside the shroud. I have a general question about how payloads are placed inside. For the model, I was just going to stick it on top of the adapter, but from looking at New Horizons, it appears it is suspended from the verticle sides of the payload shroud and not on a bottom solid surface.2. You have also stated that no SRMs will be needed, but I recall (dimly) someplace that when they use the large shroud, they use 1 in order to overcome the drag. Or, in this case, is the payload so light that they don't need to worry about such things.Thanks in advance.Mike
Any thoughts on the possibility of using the X-37 as a means to deploy a highly secret and stealthy satellite?
Quote from: kevin-rf on 12/11/2009 06:07 pmI think what has everyone scratching there head is how much it costs to do that and the amount of time it takes between flights. So $100 million a tweak and then what wait 18 months for a re-flight?Yep, that's exactly it. It's hard to see what tweeking of hardware is worth that much money. It's undoubtedly more efficient to simply throw the extra millions into more ground-testing of the hardware.This is not a cheap flight, and the confusing thing about it is that there seem to be no good explanations that justify spending the money. So is there another explanation that we don't know about?
I think what has everyone scratching there head is how much it costs to do that and the amount of time it takes between flights. So $100 million a tweak and then what wait 18 months for a re-flight?
...What sort of delta-V is it capable of?
What sort of delta-V is it capable of?
Out of curiosity, is this the first time that a winged spacecraft has been launched on top of a rocket (instead of side-mounted)? I know this is something that's been proposed quite often, from the 1960s Dyna-Soar to the 2000s Orbital Space Plane, but I don't know of any time that any of them have even gotten to an attempted launch.The results, if any of them are made public, could be interesting for the Dream Chaser folks.
Quote from: neilh on 02/26/2010 09:41 pmOut of curiosity, is this the first time that a winged spacecraft has been launched on top of a rocket (instead of side-mounted)? I know this is something that's been proposed quite often, from the 1960s Dyna-Soar to the 2000s Orbital Space Plane, but I don't know of any time that any of them have even gotten to an attempted launch.The results, if any of them are made public, could be interesting for the Dream Chaser folks.X-37 will be launched inside a fairing, no?
Quote from: Pittsburgh on 02/26/2010 10:28 pmQuote from: neilh on 02/26/2010 09:41 pmOut of curiosity, is this the first time that a winged spacecraft has been launched on top of a rocket (instead of side-mounted)? I know this is something that's been proposed quite often, from the 1960s Dyna-Soar to the 2000s Orbital Space Plane, but I don't know of any time that any of them have even gotten to an attempted launch.The results, if any of them are made public, could be interesting for the Dream Chaser folks.X-37 will be launched inside a fairing, no?Oh right, that's true, although I was actually wondering about a spaceplane being launched on top of a rocket period. In any case, I *think* the BOR-4 was launched in such a manner on top of the Kosmos, although I haven't found any photos.
Quote from: neilh on 02/26/2010 10:38 pmQuote from: Pittsburgh on 02/26/2010 10:28 pmQuote from: neilh on 02/26/2010 09:41 pmOut of curiosity, is this the first time that a winged spacecraft has been launched on top of a rocket (instead of side-mounted)? I know this is something that's been proposed quite often, from the 1960s Dyna-Soar to the 2000s Orbital Space Plane, but I don't know of any time that any of them have even gotten to an attempted launch.The results, if any of them are made public, could be interesting for the Dream Chaser folks.X-37 will be launched inside a fairing, no?Oh right, that's true, although I was actually wondering about a spaceplane being launched on top of a rocket period. In any case, I *think* the BOR-4 was launched in such a manner on top of the Kosmos, although I haven't found any photos.Do ASSET/PRIME qualify as spaceplanes?
Quote from: Blackstar on 12/17/2009 03:42 pmQuote from: kevin-rf on 12/11/2009 06:07 pmI think what has everyone scratching there head is how much it costs to do that and the amount of time it takes between flights. So $100 million a tweak and then what wait 18 months for a re-flight?Yep, that's exactly it. It's hard to see what tweeking of hardware is worth that much money. It's undoubtedly more efficient to simply throw the extra millions into more ground-testing of the hardware.This is not a cheap flight, and the confusing thing about it is that there seem to be no good explanations that justify spending the money. So is there another explanation that we don't know about?Boondoggle ?
My take? This vehicle, so far as can be determined, offers only one obvious function that a regular expendable satellite cannot offer. It can bring stuff back. The intriguing question is; "what stuff"? - Ed Kyle
Quote from: edkyle99 on 02/26/2010 11:49 pmMy take? This vehicle, so far as can be determined, offers only one obvious function that a regular expendable satellite cannot offer. It can bring stuff back. The intriguing question is; "what stuff"? - Ed KyleAnother question I have is, will there be a larger follow-on vehicle, or is this it? And if there is to be a larger craft, what will launch it? (Back when Boeing was pitching an X-37 based OSP, apparently Delta IV Heavy was thought to be sufficient.)