US Military Launches Secret Space Plane X-37B
May 21, 2015
Washington: The US Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane was launched on Wednesday for its fourth secret space mission.
The reusable, unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle lifted off atop an Atlas V rocket at 11:05 am from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The US Air Force did not say how long the X-37B will remain in orbit, but each of the three missions it has flown lasted longer than the previous one. Its third mission ended last October after a total time of 674 days in orbit.
The X-37B, built by Boeing, looks much like NASA's retired space shuttles, only much smaller. It is boosted into orbit by a rocket and lands like an aircraft on a conventional runway.
The exact purpose of the X-37B was never revealed and the secrecy surrounding the project has led to speculation that the solar-powered X-37B can be used as a spy satellite or to deliver weapons from space.
This time, the US Air Force was only willing to say that an experimental Hall thruster, a type of electric propulsion device that produces thrust by ionising and accelerating a noble gas, usually xenon, was onboard the X-37B.
read on:
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-military-launches-secret-space-plane-x-37b-764790
Love Always
mudra
May 21, 2015
Washington: The US Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane was launched on Wednesday for its fourth secret space mission.
The reusable, unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle lifted off atop an Atlas V rocket at 11:05 am from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The US Air Force did not say how long the X-37B will remain in orbit, but each of the three missions it has flown lasted longer than the previous one. Its third mission ended last October after a total time of 674 days in orbit.
The X-37B, built by Boeing, looks much like NASA's retired space shuttles, only much smaller. It is boosted into orbit by a rocket and lands like an aircraft on a conventional runway.
The exact purpose of the X-37B was never revealed and the secrecy surrounding the project has led to speculation that the solar-powered X-37B can be used as a spy satellite or to deliver weapons from space.
This time, the US Air Force was only willing to say that an experimental Hall thruster, a type of electric propulsion device that produces thrust by ionising and accelerating a noble gas, usually xenon, was onboard the X-37B.
read on:
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-military-launches-secret-space-plane-x-37b-764790Love Always
mudra
