Video: Welcome Home (I Think) - X-37B Lands After 469 Days In Space
Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 09:35PM
Do you remember the launch of an Atlas V rocket back on March 5, 2011 that was carrying the second Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle on its first flight? Well unless you're an uber space geek then you probably don't remember that launch. You're more likely to remember the return from space of the first X-37B back on December 3, 2010. Well anyway, the point is that early this morning, Saturday June 16, 2012, X-37B OTV-2 landed autonomously (pre-programmed making its own decisions) at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:48 am local time after spending 469 days in space circling the Earth.
Video screenshot: X-37B landing rollout early this morning after 469 days in space
The mission appears to have been very successful. Great launch, great landing. It's what happened in between that stirs up all kinds of crazy talk. I haven't dug very deep to try to learn what the micro shuttle spacecraft might have been up to, but so far it appears to all be classified, including what the payload was. China seems to think it's a weapon and the U.S. Air Force (who actually operates the mysterious X-37B) says it's just a technology testbed for future satellites. Time will tell. Well, maybe it will.
I put up a post with some background info on the X-37B (Getting To Know Discovery’s Runt Cousin: The Air Force X-37B) a little over a year ago. What I didn't know at the time was that Boeing also envisions the X-37C, an enlarged version of the X-37B (sized between 165% and 180%) that could actually be used to transport up to six astronauts and some cargo into space. That's pretty impressive as a people hauler given that the X-37C is still quite tiny compared to the Space Shuttle. You can learn more about the X-37C at Space.com: Secretive US X-37B Space Plane Could Evolve to Carry Astronauts.
X-37B, X-37C and Space Shuttle size comparison (illustration: Boeing)
I find it all a remarkably encouraging actually... from the recent success of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the SpaceDev Dream Chaser making steady progress toward aerodynamic drop tests, we are seeing an amazing collection of ideas and realities for future manned space exploration. Almost makes me feel like a kid again : )
Reader Comments (1)
Funny, when I saw the payload doors in the pic (before reading the article) I thought the same thing "uh-oh (unlike the shuttle's roof doors) folks are gonna look at that and think 'bomb'". Sure enough, I wasn't the only one. So, why was it Bad to fund NASA's shuttle program, but Good letting the Pentagon do it? When did the Pentagon become a pinacle of financial rectitude with public dollars? The real difference? No public oversight of the relationship between our government and the private contractors (who lobby that government daily) supplying our military. How convenient.