The Air force launches US military's first spaceplane.
The successful launch to orbit from Cape Canaveral on 22 April of the US Air Force's X-37B marked the flight debut of the US military's first-ever spaceplane - and the USA's first reusable re-entry vehicle since the Space Shuttle.
The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, then was transferred to the US Department of Defense in 2004. The X-37 had its first flight as a drop test on April 7, 2006 at Edwards AFB.
At 8.9m (29.25ft)-long and with a 4.5m wingspan, the Boeing-built X-37B is much smaller than the Shuttle. The USAF has not revealed the 4,990kg (11,000lb) vehicle's orbit parameters or payload but, being unmanned, it is clearly not a direct replacement for the Shuttle.
The Air Force and its prime contractor -- Boeing's secretive Phantom Works -- are building two X-37B spacecraft. The cost and certain information about the program are classified.
The duration and exact nature of the Orbital Test Vehicle's mission have not been disclosed by the US Air Force Capabilities Office which oversees the project. Some space experts are calling its launch the onset of the "weaponization" or militarization" of space. Other military experts describe the X-37B as the first unmanned space craft able to carry out combat missions outside Earth.
That was pulled largely due to the military getting involved the scientists didn't want it to go any further.
Very interesting read I'd recommend reading it.
Apparently the Marines are or have been working on putting marines into space, at present only earth bound missions are being advocated. This could change if the US builds a moonbase, to keep law and order I bet a unit of marines would be stationed there.
The following extracts were from the Sunday Times : Dated 19th October 2008.
The American military is planning a “spaceplane” designed to fly a crack squad of heavily armed marines to trouble spots anywhere in the world within four hours.
At a recent secret meeting at the Pentagon, engineers working on the craft, codenamed Hot Eagle, were told to draw up blueprints for a prototype which generals want to have in the air within 11 years.
The two-stage Hot Eagle would be launched from an aircraft carrier. A large booster rocket would carry a smaller spacecraft containing 13 “space troopers” 50 miles into space, far above hostile radar, before landing in enemy territory.
The marines first called for a spaceplane in 2002 after the US military failed to capture Osama Bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan. The project was known as the Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion programme (Sustain). Its advocates said it took too long on foot to reach the caves where Bin Laden was said to be hiding and helicopters were too visible.
General James Mattis, leading the marines’ Central Command at the time, said he wanted the spaceplane in the air by 2019. He was recently promoted to be one of the most senior officers in the US military establishment and Sustain has since become a priority.
Last week Lieutenant Colonel Mark Brown, a US air force spokesman, confirmed that Nasa and Pentagon officers had met for two days of talks to draw up plans for Hot Eagle.
Invitations to the meeting said participants would be discussing a “potential revolutionary step in getting combat power to any point in the world in a time frame unbelievable today”.
A development of a space trroop carrier for the Marine Corp will happen, when is the question?
LOL, since when was space flight not a military operation? Shows what you all know. Damn. You think the space race was for purely scientific purposes? You think the U.S. government would invest so many billions of dollars if there were not real and immediate implications to the scientific research they did? Hell, almost every astronaut has been a military officer. And do you really think the cold war would have ended without NASA? The competition for improved scientific capabilities esp. in space technology (The star wars program) drove the U.S.S.R. into bankruptcy (and the U.S. deap into debt). Surely you must know all this. So, what is new?
Since when was space flight not a military operation?
Both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. space promgrammes were controlled by the military and still have military involvement today. The U.S. and U.S.S.R. saw the impact of the V2 rockets on England during the closing stages of W.W.2, each saw the advantages of having their own rockets. They grabbed as many German scientists as they could which worked on the V2 programme, employing them to develop better and more powerful missles, even if they were supporters of the Nazi regime. From this beginning the space programmes developed into what we know today.
Shows what you all know.
A lot of us over here know far more then the average Yank. By bringing the subject to the public arena through any forums, means that more people are aware and can debate the issues openly. This will hopefully make the Pentagon and other military agencies understand that the public have concerns and they need to justify their military projects to the public. (knowing the Pentagon there is more chance of hell freezing over)
You think the space race was for purely scientific purposes?
No never did.
You think the U.S. government would invest so many billions of dollars if there were not real and immediate implications to the scientific research they did?
Both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. got into a space race, who got the first satellite into space, who got to the moon first and who's going to Mars.
Hell, almost every astronaut has been a military officer.
All the earleir ones were, they were the only ones who were qualified to go and the military wanted it that way.
And do you really think the cold war would have ended without NASA?
Many things helped the end, the break up of the Warsaw Pact, Berlin Wall, new people in power, global thinking etc.
The competition for improved scientific capabilities esp. in space technology (The star wars program) drove the U.S.S.R. into bankruptcy (and the U.S. deap into debt).
Space technology is always expensive, a space race even more. Both wanted to be top dog, now we are paying for it.
Recently in February 2010 the Iranian Space Agency successfully launched a Kavoshgar 3 (explorer in Farsi) rocket.
The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said, "This shows that the country can defeat the west in the battle of technology and that it will soon send its own astronauts into space." He also revealed that Iran is building three new Iranian-built satellites and a light booster rocket, named Simorgh, which is in production. I believe that there is some development support from China, another loose cannon in world peace.
Western powers fear the technology used by Iran's space programme to launch satellites and research capsules could also be used to build long-range intercontinental missiles. A US defence expert said the launch underlined the closeness of Iran's space and military programmes (very much like the U.S. and U.S.S.R. space programmes).
What guarantees can the Iranian leadership make to ensure that its space programme does not get hijacked by religious fanaticals with the idea of launching a nuke at Israel or at any Western country it does not like ( A second hand nuke from North Korea or any ex Soviet state will do).
Will Israel now carry on and develop its own nuclear weapons programme to counter this new threat, also will the U.S. look the other way when they do.
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