posted 12-12-2013 01:23 PM               

NPP was launched a year before still is working. Commsats last 10-15 years. Landsats have lasted decades. Pioneers, Voyager, MRO, Mars Odyssey, etc.

You think just because it lands, it is unique in its on orbit life?

posted 12-12-2013 02:12 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Jim Behling:
Why is that amazing and why wouldn't it be still working? It is just another spacecraft.

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posted 12-12-2013 09:26 PM               

The wings, landing avionics and guidance, landing gear, etc. have no bearing on OTV operating as a spacecraft or orbit duration. It is "just another" spacecraft is space. It has an operational mission on orbit and "being studied" after landing is the least of it.

posted 03-27-2014 02:49 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceCadet1983:
...OTV-2 was on orbit for 469 days before returning to earth.

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posted 04-24-2014 06:53 PM               

The current mission "seems long, but that's based off of the original [270-day] estimate. We don't have anything else to go on," [Brian Weeden, a technical adviser with the Secure World Foundation and a former orbital analyst with the Air Force] told Space.com. "And it's not long for other satellites. It's common for satellites, especially typical national security satellites that are well-designed, to be in orbit for years to decades."

posted 09-06-2014 02:36 PM               

In December 2012, the U.S. Air Force launched a miniature space shuttle into orbit. By the end of August, the unmanned space plane had spent 627 days on its classified military mission that seems to have no end.

posted 10-11-2014 02:19 PM               

Preparations for the third landing of the X-37B, the U.S. Air Force's unmanned, reusable space plane, are underway at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

posted 10-14-2014 10:55 AM               

Looks like X-37B landing is off until tomorrow. New notice to pilots closes Vandy airspace from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m local time on Wednesday.

posted 10-17-2014 01:10 PM               

The 30th Space Wing and our mission partners, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, Boeing, and our base support contractors, have put countless hours of hard work into preparing for this landing and today we were able to see the culmination of that dedication.

posted 10-17-2014 08:28 PM               

With a program total of 1,367 days on orbit over three missions, these agile and powerful small space vehicles have completed more days on orbit than all 135 Space Shuttle missions combined, which total 1,334 days.

posted 03-30-2015 02:47 PM               

The Air Force won't yet confirm which of the Boeing-built spaceplanes will be making the voyage. The first craft returned in October from a 675-day mission in space following a 224 day trek in 2010. OTV No. 2 spent 469 days in space in 2011-2012 on its only mission so far.

"The program selects the Orbital Test Vehicle for each activity based upon the experiment objectives," said Capt. Chris Hoyler, an Air Force spokesperson.

posted 04-10-2015 04:13 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The next X-37B (OTV) will launch atop an Atlas V on the Air Force's AFSPC-5 mission, currently scheduled for May 6, 2015.

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The ULA Atlas V launch of the AFSPC-5 mission has been delayed to no earlier than May 20, 2015 at the request of the U.S. Air Force to accommodate a spacecraft issue.

posted 04-27-2015 12:30 PM               

The ULA Atlas V launch of the AFSPC-5 mission has been confirmed on the Eastern Range for May 20, 2015. The U.S. Air Force has confirmed the spacecraft is on track to meet this launch date.

AFRL thruster experiment to fly on X-37B

The Air Force Research Laboratory, Space and Missile Systems Center, and Rapid Capabilities Office are collaborating to host a Hall thruster experiment onboard the X-37B flight vehicle.

The experiment will be hosted on Orbital Test Vehicle mission 4, the fourth flight of the X-37B reusable space plane.

The first three OTV flights have accumulated a total of 1367 days of on-orbit experimentation prior to successful landings and recoveries at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. The X-37B program performs risk reduction, experimentation, and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies, and it is administered by RCO.

The Hall thruster that will fly on the X-37B experiment is a modified version of the units that have propelled SMC's first three Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications spacecraft. A Hall thruster is a type of electric propulsion device that produces thrust by ionizing and accelerating a noble gas, usually xenon. While producing comparatively low thrust relative to conventional rocket engines, Hall thrusters provide significantly greater specific impulse, or fuel economy. This results in increased payload carrying capacity and a greater number of on-orbit maneuvers for a spacecraft using Hall thrusters rather than traditional rocket engines.

This experiment will enable in-space characterization of Hall thruster design modifications that are intended to improve performance relative to the state-of-the-art units onboard AEHF. The experiment will include collection of telemetry from the Hall thruster operating in the space environment as well as measurement of the thrust imparted on the vehicle. The resulting data will be used to validate and improve Hall thruster and environmental modeling capabilities, which enhance the ability to extrapolate ground test results to actual on-orbit performance. The on-orbit test plans are being developed by AFRL and administered by RCO.

The experiment has garnered strong support from AFRL senior leadership.

"Space is so vitally important to everything we do," said Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello, AFRL commander. "Secure comms, ISR, missile warning, weather prediction, precision navigation and timing all rely on it, and the domain is increasingly contested. A more efficient on-orbit thruster capability is huge. Less fuel burn lowers the cost to get up there, plus it enhances spacecraft operational flexibility, survivability and longevity."

Dr. Greg Spanjers, the AFRL Space Capability Lead and Chief Scientist of the Space Vehicles Directorate, added, "AFRL is proud to be able to contribute to this research teamed with our partners at SMC, RCO, NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Aerojet-Rocketdyne. It was great to see our Gov't-Contractor team identify an opportunity and then quickly respond to implement a solution that will offer future Air Force spacecraft even greater capabilities."

posted 05-06-2015 01:55 PM               

NASA Test Materials to Fly on Air Force Space Plane

Building on more than a decade of data from International Space Station (ISS) research, NASA is expanding its materials science research by flying an experiment on the U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane.

By flying the Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space (METIS) investigation on the X-37B, materials scientists have the opportunity to expose almost 100 different materials samples to the space environment for more than 200 days. METIS is building on data acquired during the Materials on International Space Station Experiment (MISSE), which flew more than 4,000 samples in space from 2001 to 2013.

"By exposing materials to space and returning the samples to Earth, we gain valuable data about how the materials hold up in the environment in which they will have to operate," said Miria Finckenor, the co-investigator on the MISSE experiment and principal investigator for METIS at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "Spacecraft designers can use this information to choose the best material for specific applications, such as thermal protection or antennas or any other space hardware."

The International Space Station is a unique orbiting laboratory used to conduct hundreds of investigations each year, with half of the research resources designated as a U.S. National Laboratory for investigations selected through the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to provide direct benefits to people living on Earth. NASA research focuses on advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating technologies to enable human exploration into deep space through investigations such as the current one-year mission with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

It is difficult to simulate all the aspects of the space environment, so testing materials for extended durations is particularly important. Programs across the aerospace industry, including NASA's Mars Curiosity rover, the James Webb Space Telescope, and SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft have improved performance by selecting materials tested on the space station. All of the data from the MISSE investigations are available in the Materials and Processes Technical Information System, where the METIS data also will be made available.

Researchers are flying some materials as part of METIS that also were tested during MISSE. Testing the same types of materials again can help scientists verify results obtained on the orbital outpost. If researchers see different results between the same type of materials used on both METIS and MISSE, it would help scientists learn about the differences experienced in various orbital environments.

"When we flew newly developed static-dissipative coatings on MISSE-2, we did not know they would be used for both the Curiosity rover and the SpaceX Dragon," said Finckenor. "Some program we don't know about now will be successful because engineers found the data they needed."

The METIS experiment complements the station research, looking at a variety of materials of interest for use on spacecraft built by NASA, industry, and other government agencies. The materials flown in space are potential candidates to replace obsolescent materials with environmentally-friendly options.

Finckenor leads a diverse team of investigators from other NASA centers, aerospace companies, and universities. For both MISSE and METIS, the customers supply small quarter-size samples. METIS will fly a variety of materials including polymers, composites, and coatings. Finckenor prepares the samples for flight and helps with post-flight sample analysis.

"Data from the space station and METIS materials experiments will improve the lifetime and operations of future spacecraft needed for NASA's journey to Mars," said Lisa Watson-Morgan, Marshall's chief engineer.

Marshall provided the hardware for the experiment, while the Air Force is providing NASA the opportunity to fly the experiment. The flight provides researchers an opportunity to collect additional data in advance of the next MISSE experiment aboard the space station in a couple of years.

The Air Force operates the unpiloted, robotically controlled and reusable X-37B space plane to test technology during long-duration missions. It has completed three missions launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, with the last mission ending in October 2014 after 674 days in orbit. It takes off vertically, lands horizontally, and continues to further industrial advancement for reusable space test vehicles.

Data in the Materials and Processes Technical Information System are available to U.S. citizens, who can apply for an account here.

posted 05-20-2015 10:22 AM               

The X-37B's ascent marked the start of a new direction for the 29-foot-long (9-meter) classified shuttle.

"With the success of the first three missions, we're able to shift our focus from checkouts of the vehicle to testing of experimental payloads," Randy Walden, director of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement.

posted 05-27-2015 08:38 PM               

Observers this week spotted the craft flying overhead in a 194 by 202 mile orbit (312 X 325 km), tilted 38 degrees relative to the equator.

That perch is lower than previous X-37B missions and the inclination is lower, too.

"OTV 4 entered the lowest initial altitude of the program," said Ted Molczan, a respected satellite observing hobbyist.

"The ground track nearly repeats every 2 days. Frequently repeating ground tracks have been a common feature of the program. This could be an indication of a surveillance mission, or it may offer some operational advantage I have yet to figure out."

posted 02-09-2017 09:23 AM               

No show of OTV 4 this morning at my site 4641 in Bari. Clear sky, predicted pass at 04:19:39 25°/163°. From 04:10 to 04:40 no sight of it.

Unfortunately, negative weather for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

posted 02-14-2017 08:37 AM               

"The X-37 is still on-orbit. The program is conducting a regularly scheduled exercise this week," said Capt. Annmarie Annicelli, media operations officer at the Pentagon’s Air Force Press Desk.

Internet chatter buzzed in recent days about a potential landing of the stubby-winged spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility as early as this morning.

But the Pentagon put those rumors to rest with its brief but pointed statement.

posted 02-15-2017 08:10 AM               

My coworker took this pic on Thursday of an X-37 making its way from the Shuttle Landing Facility to the OPF.

posted 05-07-2017 08:02 AM               

The Air Force X37-B OTV-4 has returned from orbit and has landed safely NASA Kennedy.