2011-02-14

After seven months in space, the U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B unmanned space plane returned to Earth on Friday to wrap up a debut flight shrouded in secrecy.  The robotic X-37B space plane landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to end its maiden voyage. The space plane, also known as Orbital Test Vehicle 1, glided back to Earth over the Pacific Ocean before landing at the revamped Vandenberg runway at about 1:16 a.m. PT Dec. 3.  In all, the X-37B space plane spent more than 220 days in orbit.
Development of this plane started about 10 year ago.

Originally, NASA used the X-37B space plane as an experimental test bed until funding for the project ran out in 2004. The vehicle then passed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and was ultimately turned over to the Air Force in 2006.

The X-37B space drone is robotic winged spacecraft that looks in many ways like a miniature space shuttle. It was built by Boeing's Phantom Works Division in Seal Beach, Calif., and can fly long, extended missions because of its solar array power system, which allows it to stay in orbit for up to 270 days, Air Force officials have said.

The X-37B is about 29 feet (9 meters) long and has a wingspan of just over 14 feet (4 meters) across. It stands just over 9.5 feet (3 meters) tall and weighs nearly 11,000 pounds (about 5,000 kg).

The X-37B launches like a rocket and glides back to Earth like NASA's space shuttles, but instead of a single tail fin at the rear, the X-37B has two stabilizers, called "ruddervators," sprouting up in a "V" shape.

Another advantage is that small size makes it more difficult to identify and control of made operations with optical devices.

Possible areas of application:

•    Secretive launch of specialized spacecrafts
•    Usage of expensive equipment which returns to Earth for further reusable applications
•    Collection and deliver of data which increase capacity of radio channels
•    Technical service of space platform
•    Application as offensive platform as Global Strike concept
•    Other special applications

According to official description - “The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, is a non-operational system that will demonstrate a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force. The objectives of the OTV program include space experimentation, risk reduction and a concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.”
The Air Force has already ordered a second X-37B, the Orbital Test Vehicle 2, which is slated to launch on another test flight sometime in the spring of 2011.
But for now, Air Force officials said they were ecstatic to see the successful return of the first X-37B spacecraft.
What surprises is that Russia could take leadership in this area.

In 2004, promotion of “Kliper” have started. Due to the lack of funding it was emphasized to cooperate with other space agencies. At the same time ESA (European Space Agency) showed some interest to the “Kliper”, but asked for conceptual alterations for the needs, space craft should land like plane. In less than a year, with cooperation experimental design office “Sukhoi” and Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute winged version of “Kliper” was created. In addition, full scale model was made and works for equipment arrangement started. Project was introduced in Le Burge fair and created a furor. Later by inexplicable way in 2006 project was sent to Roskosmos for modification and then suspended due to termination of the tender.

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