Margery
Well-known
The US and China are gearing up for a space war that could render orbit unusable
"The Boeing-made X-37B – in essence, a miniature robotic version of NASA’s long-retired Space Shuttle – isn’t a weapon. It carries prototype hardware into orbit for missions which can last two years or more: unlike the Shuttle the X-37B has a solar power array. Its capable rocket motor and substantial fuel supply, and the fact that it is re-usable, mean that it can and does change orbits frequently, permitting it to appear and disappear unexpectedly.
The 29-foot-long X-37B was formerly a unique advantage for America, but nowadays China has a similar mini-shuttle: the CSSHQ, derived from its designation “Chinese Re-usable Experimental Spacecraft”, which has now flown two missions. But the US is still far the biggest space nation: of the 6,700 satellites in orbit around Earth 4,500 are American and just 600 are Chinese.
US satellites support Pentagon operations at every level. Soldiers navigate by way of handheld GPS and communicate via satellite radio. Pilots drop GPS-guided bombs and fire GPS-guided missiles. Without the GPS system, US nuclear warheads become much less accurate: the system was in fact originally built mainly with nuclear warfare in mind."
another Telegraph article here: The US is about to send up its ‘secret space warplane’ atop its most powerful rocket
goes into the design and history of the X-37B and points out just what the Chinese and Russians are doing up there and what this craft might be able to do to protect American interests in what is becoming hotly contested territory (Reagan and Trump were RIGHT)
"The US probably has good reason to be paranoid. A Russian satellite designated Kosmos-2558 has been making close passes by a US military secret satellite known as USA-326 since last year, and Kosmos-2558 is not the first such Russian “inspector” satellite. China for its part operates a mini-shuttle not unlike the X-37B.
In this context the Space Force mention of “new orbital regimes” for the X-37B on this mission is significant, especially given the fact that this time the little spaceplane is going up on a Falcon Heavy."
China doesn't like it much and I automatically start to like whatever puts the shivers down Xi's spine. Xi of course copied the Americans, and has his own version. but as this article here points out Saltzman: ‘Probably No Coincidence’ X-37 and Chinese Space Plane Will Launch Near Each Other the capability to grab and scoop someone else's satellite, take it home, take it apart and study it is quite handy.
"Despite all this, Saltzman projected confidence in X-37B’s mission and confirmed previous Space Force releases that hinted the space plane would operate at a higher orbit than ever before—it has operated in low-Earth orbit in the past, some 110-500 miles above the ground, but Falcon Heavy can deliver payloads of 58,860 pounds—far more than the X-37B—to geosynchronous orbit, more than 22,000 miles up.
“We are going to expand the envelope,” Saltzman said. “There are some good experiments and tests and that’s the primary goal of that, testing technologies. There are some experiments being run and we’ll pull data back. The beauty of it is that you can put something in the space environment and then bring it home and look at it. That’s the beauty of a space place concept.”
As reported in the Telegraph articles, the X-37B was scheduled to go up using Musk's Falcon Heavy space craft 2 days ago and some trouble on the ground stopped the launch. https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...itarys-secretive-x-37b-spaceplane-2023-12-16/
"Dec 15 (Reuters) - SpaceX said it was targeting Thursday, Dec. 28 for the launch of the U.S. military's X-37B robot spaceplane on its seventh mission to orbit.
"Now targeting no earlier than Thursday, December 28 for Falcon Heavy to launch USSF-52 to orbit from Florida," SpaceX said in a post on X on Friday, after it stood down on the launch earlier this week to perform additional system checkouts."
China's launch went ahead.
While the X-37B was scrubbed several times, finally the new launch date is scheduled for Dec 28th. Here's hoping!
"The Boeing-made X-37B – in essence, a miniature robotic version of NASA’s long-retired Space Shuttle – isn’t a weapon. It carries prototype hardware into orbit for missions which can last two years or more: unlike the Shuttle the X-37B has a solar power array. Its capable rocket motor and substantial fuel supply, and the fact that it is re-usable, mean that it can and does change orbits frequently, permitting it to appear and disappear unexpectedly.
The 29-foot-long X-37B was formerly a unique advantage for America, but nowadays China has a similar mini-shuttle: the CSSHQ, derived from its designation “Chinese Re-usable Experimental Spacecraft”, which has now flown two missions. But the US is still far the biggest space nation: of the 6,700 satellites in orbit around Earth 4,500 are American and just 600 are Chinese.
US satellites support Pentagon operations at every level. Soldiers navigate by way of handheld GPS and communicate via satellite radio. Pilots drop GPS-guided bombs and fire GPS-guided missiles. Without the GPS system, US nuclear warheads become much less accurate: the system was in fact originally built mainly with nuclear warfare in mind."
another Telegraph article here: The US is about to send up its ‘secret space warplane’ atop its most powerful rocket
goes into the design and history of the X-37B and points out just what the Chinese and Russians are doing up there and what this craft might be able to do to protect American interests in what is becoming hotly contested territory (Reagan and Trump were RIGHT)
"The US probably has good reason to be paranoid. A Russian satellite designated Kosmos-2558 has been making close passes by a US military secret satellite known as USA-326 since last year, and Kosmos-2558 is not the first such Russian “inspector” satellite. China for its part operates a mini-shuttle not unlike the X-37B.
In this context the Space Force mention of “new orbital regimes” for the X-37B on this mission is significant, especially given the fact that this time the little spaceplane is going up on a Falcon Heavy."
China doesn't like it much and I automatically start to like whatever puts the shivers down Xi's spine. Xi of course copied the Americans, and has his own version. but as this article here points out Saltzman: ‘Probably No Coincidence’ X-37 and Chinese Space Plane Will Launch Near Each Other the capability to grab and scoop someone else's satellite, take it home, take it apart and study it is quite handy.
"Despite all this, Saltzman projected confidence in X-37B’s mission and confirmed previous Space Force releases that hinted the space plane would operate at a higher orbit than ever before—it has operated in low-Earth orbit in the past, some 110-500 miles above the ground, but Falcon Heavy can deliver payloads of 58,860 pounds—far more than the X-37B—to geosynchronous orbit, more than 22,000 miles up.
“We are going to expand the envelope,” Saltzman said. “There are some good experiments and tests and that’s the primary goal of that, testing technologies. There are some experiments being run and we’ll pull data back. The beauty of it is that you can put something in the space environment and then bring it home and look at it. That’s the beauty of a space place concept.”
As reported in the Telegraph articles, the X-37B was scheduled to go up using Musk's Falcon Heavy space craft 2 days ago and some trouble on the ground stopped the launch. https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...itarys-secretive-x-37b-spaceplane-2023-12-16/
"Dec 15 (Reuters) - SpaceX said it was targeting Thursday, Dec. 28 for the launch of the U.S. military's X-37B robot spaceplane on its seventh mission to orbit.
"Now targeting no earlier than Thursday, December 28 for Falcon Heavy to launch USSF-52 to orbit from Florida," SpaceX said in a post on X on Friday, after it stood down on the launch earlier this week to perform additional system checkouts."
China's launch went ahead.
While the X-37B was scrubbed several times, finally the new launch date is scheduled for Dec 28th. Here's hoping!
