The X-37B: Orbital Bomber or Orbital Test Vehicle?

by Stevie Smith - Apr 22 2010, 13:12

With NASA’s stalwart space shuttle fleet heading towards retirement at the end of 2010, and budgetary constraints leaving the future of U.S. space exploration in some doubt, it falls to the U.S. Air Force to prick a few ears with its mysterious X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle.

Beyond looking not unlike a smaller version of the space shuttle – it even has a modest payload bay – the totally autonomous craft is approximately 29 feet in length, weighs around 11,000 lbs, stands at a height of just under 10 feet, has a wingspan of 14 feet, and can channel energy from the sun thanks to an array of fold-out solar panels.

Little is known regarding the secret vehicle’s purpose or its abilities, although it is reportedly capable of remaining in orbit for as long as 270 days (around nine months), which is a far cry from the usual two-week missions NASA’s space shuttle crews are accustomed to. 

According to Gary E. Payton, deputy under secretary for Air Force space programs, the X-37B is “a generation beyond the shuttle” and Thursday’s debut mission will put a selection of the vehicle’s reusable technologies to the test – these include a new silica-based heat shielding system designed to protect the craft during atmospheric re-entry.

The X-37B is currently residing within an unmanned Atlas V rocket on Launch Pad 41 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. Weather and malfunctions permitting, it is due to blast into the sky at 8:01 p.m. EDT this evening (approximately midnight GMT).

Air Force officials have not revealed Department of Defense costs connected to the development of the X-37B or when the experimental new craft will return to Earth – only that it will land without human direction at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

When quizzed as to the space plane’s ultimate purpose, the Air Force has insisted the vehicle will provide a simple way to quickly test new technologies ahead of their installation in such delicate hardware as orbital satellites.

However, some analysts – such as Globalsecurity.com director John Pike – believe the X-37B could be used to carry out military missions and that the robotic space plane would not be within the defense budget if it wasn’t meant to serve a military purpose.

“Are we looking at a new space vehicle or an orbital bomber capable of attacking from space?” he posited in an LA Times report. “The idea of a small-winged vehicle that can go into orbit and perform military mission has been around for half a century.”

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