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X-37B orbit identified
They still don't know what exactly the X-37B does, but they apparently
now know where it's at in space at any given time: http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2742/...ystery-remains This will give them a baseline to work with if or when it starts doing its orbital maneuvers. Pat |
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X-37B orbit identified
On 5/24/2010 11:07 PM, Anonymous wrote:
It's obviously some sort of weapons platform, probably a prototype for some sort of nuclear bomber designed to circumvent the FOBS-treaty. Due to orbital mechanics, unless you were to put a lot of them into orbit simultaneously (probably into polar orbit at that) you could have a very long wait till it got into a position to attack a particular target on the earth's surface, in the same way that the Shuttle has a window for landing at either the Cape or Edwards AFB that it can't reenter outside of. When the program got going it was indeed going to carry kinetic energy warheads on top of the wings, as early Boeing artwork showed: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077821/ But again, that would have taken a lot of them in orbit at once if you wanted to get any sort of quick response time attack capability. Pat |
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X-37B orbit identified
Anonymous wrote:
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message They still don't know what exactly the X-37B does, but they apparently now know where it's at in space at any given time: http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2742/...ystery-remains This will give them a baseline to work with if or when it starts doing its orbital maneuvers. It's obviously some sort of weapons platform, probably a prototype for some sort of nuclear bomber designed to circumvent the FOBS-treaty. Um, interesting observation, given the orbital cycles would appear to keep it over ocean 1/2 of its orbit. Unless this thing is designed for MARV'ed warheads it would have a hard time putting anything on target other than the Amazon delta or Australia. (Well there is the mid-east I suppose) Given that it orbits over the mid-east and central Asia including Pakistan and Afghanistan it doesn't require any further 'rocket science' to figure out what the intent is. It will be 'fun' for the amateurs to track this. Seems to me that the main reason for having something like the X37B is to do fancy on-orbit maneuvers because, unlike conventional satellites, it's ok to consume up gobs of OMS fuel since it can be easily replenished via a simple return to earth. Tasking on demand or low-cost re-tasking if you will. Right now that's a big deal. To me, the satellite bus idea seems to hold good merit as well... But as a strategic nuke platform, (besides being a treaty violation) not really. Dave |
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