The Space Plane Known As The X-37 What is our space plane doing orbiting in space for such a long time? This is a question that many would love the answer to. The plane which looks like a miniature space shuttle has just returned to earth after being in orbit for over two years. One thing is for sure, the lengthily stay in space did not seem to affect the ability to reignite the engines and return home. It’s missions have been kept secret and this just strokes the curiosity even more. If I were guessing person, I would have to say it’s mission seems to be military. While we don’t know what the mission is, we do know it has launched at least a few satellites. When I look at the space plane, I can’t help but remember it looks like what the original space shuttle looked like. The original space shuttle was much smaller and didn’t need the booster rockets on the sides which made it much more dangerous. The military had gotten hold of the plans and complained the space shuttle was too small to launch some of the military satellites and that is why it was enlarged and needed extra rockets to boost into space. I have to admit I am curious too about what its mission is but I know I will never know the truth so all I can do is guess at what it is doing. First of all, the space plane is designated as being X–37B. It has been flying into space since 2010 as far as we know and has completed five missions. There could have been more missions since everything is so secret it might turn out the space plane is as old as the shuttles or even older. It could be carrying out missions which were pushed to the side when the bigger space shuttle was put into service. Secret spaceflights are nothing new. In the beginning the Soviets and the Americans had plenty of them. Many of them resulted in the launch of spy satellites and some space stations. It was much harder for spy satellites to operate in the beginning since they could not beam photos back to earth. They had a shoot the role of film down from the satellite and have a plane with a big net try to catch the capsule the film was contained in. Today as we all know photos are digital and the data which creates the photo is contained in a radio wave which is received by a computer and downloaded. When you ask others, what is the mission of the X–37B, the best answer you usually get is the missions are twofold. First part of the mission is reusable spacecraft technology and the second part is operating experiments. If you talk to the Air Force who was running the missions, they tell you the missions are testing avionics, flight systems, guidance and navigation, thermal protection, insulation, propulsion and reentry systems. It is interesting to note when the Air Force talks about navigation, they could be talking about a new system which does not rely on satellites. The Russians claim they have developed a system where they can navigate through space also without the use of satellites. I believe if the Russians have this ability, we probably have it also. There are those who think we are testing alien technology in our space plane. As I have said many times before, when people don’t understand something they go to alien technology far too many times. Could the U.S. Air Force be bringing parts of captured UFOs into orbit to see what they are capable of in space? We believe the space plane stayed in orbit for the length of time it was sent up, and if this is true, we wouldn’t have tested anything to do with propulsion, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t test other things. These suspicions were brought about recently when the US Air Force released UFO videos. Many believed the cat was out of the bag and the Air Force was letting us know these were alien vehicles. This made people assume the stories about crashed UFOs were probably true and the United States was experimenting with these crashed UFOs. Let’s forget about all that for now. When I look at our space plane mounted on its launching rocket it reminds me of the photo of the rocket from space X which is scheduled to go to Mars. I know that rocket is far larger, but it seems to have a similar silhouette with the space plane on its launcher. Space plane was said to originally be a NASA project, but after five years was transferred to the US Department of Defense in 2004. I can understand this because why would NASA want to hold onto something it had no use for and which had been replaced by the space shuttle? I think one of the most interesting things about the space plane is where it was developed. That was by Boeing’s Phantom Works. This is significant because it is where secret projects are developed and is the equivalent of Lockheed’s Skunk Works where many of our most secret projects are developed. This leads me to believe this is just not an ordinary space plane but may have other attributes. It is said one of its original missions was to repair satellites and any vehicle which can go up to a satellite to repair it may be able to knock it out of orbit. This is precisely what we are complaining about with vehicles being developed by Russia and China to repair satellites. As with everything else in life many objects which seem to be harmless can also be harnessed as weapons. When NASA transferred the space plane it went to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also known as DARPA, an agency which develops many of the militaries secret projects and solves military problems with devices which nobody else can solve. Originally the space plane was tested by being dropped from a bigger plane. Better models of the space plane had come out and there was a X-37A, and X-37B. It is hard to know the amount of the space planes which were built, but according to Wikipedia there was a total of three. Whether this is correct or not is a question I can’t answer since parts of this project are so secret. It does seem however that not too many of the space planes would be needed because their experiments will probably lead us to building more advanced craft.
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