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#400 by JosephB on 17 Aug, 2010 17:28
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I was hoping amateurs with spendy telescopes & cameras might post some pics.
Would the guys in dark suits and sunglasses come knocking on the door? -
#401 by rdale on 17 Aug, 2010 17:58
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I've seen it pass over a few times, but it's very faint. I assume it's way too small for the amateurs to be able to get anything usable from.
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#402 by JosephB on 17 Aug, 2010 18:22
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Would love to have this guys gear.
Although getting through the owners manual would be interesting.
OK, page one..... uhhhhhhhhh
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article489476.ece/Grandpa-a-threat-to-US-security -
#403 by robertross on 18 Aug, 2010 00:24
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Would love to have this guys gear.
Although getting through the owners manual would be interesting.
OK, page one..... uhhhhhhhhh
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article489476.ece/Grandpa-a-threat-to-US-security
Oh nice find. Quite the gear he has!
Well, when it comes to wondering what the payload could be: flying over hot spots seems to indicate recon work (most likely whatever latest-generation cameras they had available).
As to a threat to National security...maybe they need to develop cloaking devices.
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#404 by rdale on 20 Aug, 2010 15:15
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After losing OTV-1 the past few weeks, Ted Molczan and Greg Roberts figured out where it's at. Apparently it made some adjustments to increase the orbital height by about 24km for whatever reason.
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#405 by Jester on 20 Aug, 2010 15:43
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From SeeSat-L:
"Greg Roberts completed a successful planar search for X-37B OTV-1 on 2010 Aug 19.
The orbit was not optimally placed, but he managed so search for 89 min, which is nearly one full
revolution of the last known orbit, to there was a good probability of detecting the object. His
subsequent examination of the video revealed that it had indeed been captured, at about 17:53 UTC,
and he reduced 8 points, spanning 53 s:
http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2010/0249.html
The following elements are the result of propagating my epoch 10210.093 elements to the revolution
of Greg's observation, and adjusting only RAAN, mean anomaly and mean motion. Greg's five points of
0.1 s time resolution were weighted 100 percent; his first and last point have only 1 s time
accuracy, but they extend the arc considerably, so were worth including, at a bit lower weight, 70
percent.
OTV-1 427 X 444 km
1 36514U 10015A 10231.69817710 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 05
2 36514 39.9851 347.3161 0012533 164.0919 196.0285 15.44559742 02
Arc 20100819.75-0819.75 WRMS resid 0.042 totl 0.012 xtrk
Another night or two of observations are required to refine the elements, but based on this
preliminary result, it appears that a couple of manoeuvres were made on Aug 08, within a few hours
of 06 h UTC, which raised the orbit about 24 km. Their planes nearly coincide at that time, which
tends to support this conclusion.
Although Greg observed it ~5 min earlier than predicted by the previous orbit, it had in fact gone
higher, and been nearly lapped by the previous orbit. The ~0.5 min increase in period, results in
more than a 7 min per day divergence in the predicted time of passage, so despite the small size of
the manoeuvre, a planar search was required to recover it.
This small change of orbit may have been a test of OTV-1's manoeuvring system, or a requirement of
whatever payload may be aboard, or both. The new orbit appears to very nearly repeat every 6 days,
instead of the 4 days of the previous orbit, but I will wait for a more precise orbital solution
before attempting to draw conclusions (repeating ground tracks can occur unintentionally).
Nice work, Greg, and thank you to all who volunteered to assist in the hunt.
Ted Molczan"
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#406 by Shuttle2moon on 26 Aug, 2010 17:07
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I have a question-was there a report that this craft was lost upon launch-obviously an error. Did anyone else hear this report? I do not have a link...
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#407 by Jim on 26 Aug, 2010 17:11
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never heard it
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#408 by TheFallen on 26 Aug, 2010 17:15
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I have a question-was there a report that this craft was lost upon launch-obviously an error. Did anyone else hear this report? I do not have a link...
I think you're referring to the HTV-2 glider...which launched around the same time as the X-37 last April but was lost 9 minutes into the mission -
#409 by Shuttle2moon on 26 Aug, 2010 17:21
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thanks thefallen.
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#410 by Lee Jay on 02 Sep, 2010 18:22
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I've seen it pass over a few times, but it's very faint. I assume it's way too small for the amateurs to be able to get anything usable from.
Well, I posted the best I could do with a 5" scope above, and I think it's usable in that you can see the general outline of the craft. Ralf uses a 10" and so could do at least twice as good as I did, and I know of people using 14 inch scopes to get pictures of satellites. So I think it's doable. -
#411 by mmeijeri on 02 Sep, 2010 18:23
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I have a question-was there a report that this craft was lost upon launch-obviously an error. Did anyone else hear this report? I do not have a link...
I believe there was another launch that same day and that one was lost. -
#412 by edkyle99 on 02 Sep, 2010 19:07
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I have a question-was there a report that this craft was lost upon launch-obviously an error. Did anyone else hear this report? I do not have a link...
I believe there was another launch that same day and that one was lost.
That is my recollection. The first "Minotaur 4 Lite" was launched on a suborbital mission from Vandenberg AFB on the same day, carrying the HTV-2a hypersonic glider. Contact was lost with the glider 9 min after liftoff, shortly after the launch vehicle's boost phase was completed. Both X-37 and HTV-2a were winged and "secret", so it makes sense that the story would have been confused in the blogosphere, etc.
- Ed Kyle -
#413 by kevin-rf on 02 Sep, 2010 21:03
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Don't forget, it took some time for sat watchers to find it after launch. I'm sure that also added to the confusion.
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#414 by NotGncDude on 13 Oct, 2010 21:49
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There is a buzz going around that amateur astronomers can't locate the X-37B anymore. So either the spaceplane changed orbit and they haven't found it again yet, or it attempted landing.
Anybody here has a more recent scoop? -
#415 by edkyle99 on 13 Oct, 2010 21:59
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There is a buzz going around that amateur astronomers can't locate the X-37B anymore. So either the spaceplane changed orbit and they haven't found it again yet, or it attempted landing.
It was spotted on October 12 (yesterday). It appears to have maneuvered yet again.
Anybody here has a more recent scoop?
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Oct-2010/0121.html
Gotta wonder if orbit lowering is a prelude to pending return.
- Ed Kyle -
#416 by Longhorn John on 14 Oct, 2010 16:03
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I thought it had returned months ago!
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#417 by Namechange User on 14 Oct, 2010 16:09
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Anybody here has a more recent scoop?
Given the secrecy behind it and the "advanced technologies", clearly the only logical conclusion is it jumped into hyperspace and is currently enroute to Gliese 581 to see if there is really a planet in the "habitable zone" or not.
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#418 by FinalFrontier on 14 Oct, 2010 16:11
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There is a buzz going around that amateur astronomers can't locate the X-37B anymore. So either the spaceplane changed orbit and they haven't found it again yet, or it attempted landing.
It was spotted on October 12 (yesterday). It appears to have maneuvered yet again.
Anybody here has a more recent scoop?
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Oct-2010/0121.html
Gotta wonder if orbit lowering is a prelude to pending return.
- Ed Kyle
O_o Wow, its been up there for a LONG time. That thing is pretty crazy. Burns me up not knowing what its for lol.
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#419 by FinalFrontier on 14 Oct, 2010 16:11
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Anybody here has a more recent scoop?
Given the secrecy behind it and the "advanced technologies", clearly the only logical conclusion is it jumped into hyperspace and is currently enroute to Gliese 581 to see if there is really a planet in the "habitable zone" or not.
Now I have to clean up my coffee.
Now I have to clean up my coffee.