X-37B - What is it doing up there?

[Music] the US air force will be launching its mysterious x-37 from a falcon 9 rocket on September 7th the launch is no secret what is secret is what it'll be doing up there in space this will be the fifth flight of the craft and as with the last flights its mission is classified each flight has been longer than the last with most recent lasting nearly two years in orbit the unmanned space plane is similar in appearance to the space shuttle however much smaller it is 29 feet in length and nine and a half feet tall it has a wingspan of 15 feet and a payload Bay of 7 feet by 4 feet inside the payload bay is carried a solar panel for power and can carry 5 to 600 pounds of equipment the x37 is a grandchild of the x20 dinosaur the dinosaur was a US Air Force manned space plane designed in the 1950s the government eventually cancelled the project due to cost and Technology limitations and went with the capsule design to launch the first Americans into space a few decades after the dinosaur came the reef lie or the reusable fly back satellite this vehicle appears very similar to the x-37 the craft was designed by Rockwell International which was then acquired by Boeing who used a design to construct the x-37 NASA awarded Boeing funding to develop a reusable spacecraft for testing and to repair satellites in orbit in 2004 the program was transferred to DARPA which is a government agency which develops and studies advanced and future technologies at that point the x-37 became classified and eventually taken over by the US Air Force again what the x37 is doing up there is secret the Air Force's official explanation is that the spacecraft is designed to perform risk reduction experimentation and concept of operational development for reusable spacecraft technologies so far only two experiments onboard have been publicly acknowledged a NASA material science experiment and an ion thruster being used for future spacecraft propulsion any attempt to figure out what other uses the x-37 is being used for must take into account a few clues first the craft is under control of the military not NASA therefore it must have some sort of military application second its flights have all been very long and duration whatever they are testing requires long exposure to space third it has a lot of fuel the original design called for 3,100 meters per second of delta v delta v is basically the measure of how much you can maneuver in space the Space Shuttle for comparison only had about 300 meters per second Delta V this larger amount of fuel could indicate that the craft is meant to rendezvous with satellites or to get into position to fly over a certain area of the earth fourth all flights have been in low-earth orbit typically lower than 250 miles in altitude this low orbit is used for many commercial satellites several military recon satellites and manned space missions and finally it is reusable reusability comes at a high cost the heatshield landing gear navigation equipment etc are very heavy which really limits the payload that it can carry into space the spacecraft in total weighs 11,000 pounds while its payload is only about 500 pounds so whatever is being launched in its payload Bay must be very important to not only bring back but also to have the space plane be able to be used again with these in mind there are several guesses as to the x-37 bees purpose the x20 dinosaur was originally considered to be used as a bomber with the crew of three on board that were launched into orbit armed with several nuclear bombs they would then re-enter the atmosphere drop the bombs and return home using a jet engine if the x37 is a bomber it could sit in orbit for years and once the signal is given change its orbits target a location release its weapons and return home the space planes development also coincides with the USS development of its prompt Global Strike program whose goal is to be able to strike anywhere in the world in less than one hour however this application is unlikely due to its small payload capacity and it would also violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which bans placing weapons of destruction into orbit many people have stated they believe that the x37 s purpose may be to destroy or disable enemy satellites it could maneuver to getting close and either use lasers or kinetic weapons against the target it makes sense that some people would think this as the x-37 s original purpose was to rendezvous with satellites and repair them however despite having a large amount of fuel from nuvaring it still does not have enough to make this likely also the military wouldn't need a reusable spacecraft for this it makes much more sense to have a dedicated spacecraft weighing all 11,000 pounds with more fuel to complete the task than it does to only have 500 pounds worth of gear that can fit in the back of the space plane the x37 may be being used for reconnaissance the craft could carry an array of cameras and sensors to spy on an enemy nation that extra fuel could be used to change its orbit to get into position to fly over a target this could prove beneficial compared to conventional recon satellites that fly in very predictable orbits and an enemy can simply hide any sensitive material when one passes overhead typically recon satellites have been very large and bulky however companies like planet labs have developed their dove cube SATs that are less than 1 foot in length and only 4 inches wide and in with these small satellites can produce relatively high resolution images of the earth for their size and finally the last and least exciting is that the x-37b is simply being used for research after all this is what the US government has been claiming all along the craft could carry various experiments onboard to see how it reacts to long-term exposure in outer space testing could include new armor and shields to protect against micro meteorites the effects of long-duration spaceflight on various systems and testing out future methods of spacecraft propulsion the infamous emdrive which seems to defy the laws of physics has been rumored to be being tested on the craft this operation seems to be the most likely use of the x-37 considering all the information available however only time will tell what benefit the space plane will bring to the US Air Force [Music] you

Channel: Covert Cabal

Views: 1,878,434

Rating: 4.7299109 out of 5

Keywords: x-37b, x-37, 37, usaf, military, spaceplane, spaceship, laser, boeing, em drive, spy, mystery, launch

Id: BGn80n68wLk

Length: 6min 32sec (392 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

This is only a weather balloon

[u/leopardsang]

http://www.airforce-technology.com/news/newsusaf-prepares-for-fifth-mission-to-launch-x-37b-otv-spacecraft-5917215

[u/sekret_identity]

It's probably replacing power supplies in spy satellites

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

[u/Chafla]

Rods of god