The X-378: Mystery Mission!

[3113]

It looks like the space shuttle's more diminutive cousin - but experts say it was created with technology from a generation beyond. The U.S. military launched the mysterious X-37B unmanned winged spacecraft last night - but what America plans to do with it there is anyone's guess.

The mission has been wrapped in secrecy from the get-go. The Air Force said the launch was a success but would give no details of the mission's progress....After a decade of development, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle launched from Florida and will spend up to nine months in orbit. It will re-enter Earth on autopilot and land like an airplane at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

....When exactly that will happen, however, even the Air Force can't predict. 'In all honesty, we don't know when it's coming back for sure,' Payton said. 'It depends on the progress we make with the on-orbit experiments and the on-orbit demonstrations.' The spacecraft will conduct classified experiments while in orbit. The military still has not revealed what those experiments will entail. Payton said the Air Force's main interest is to test the craft's automated flight control system and learn about the cost of turning it around for launch again.

Built by Boeing's Phantom Works division, the X-37 program was originally headed by NASA. It was later turned over to the Pentagon's research and development arm and then to a secretive Air Force unit. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the project, but the current total has not been released....

Full article here.

Okay, AHer's! What is the X-378's ultra-secret mission?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Global Strike!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Full article here.

Okay, AHer's! What is the X-378's ultra-secret mission?

Depending on orbit...probably to watch all of us here in the AH!

 

[slyc_willie]

Full article here.

Okay, AHer's! What is the X-378's ultra-secret mission?

The first step toward unmanned missions to Mars.

Not to mention surveillance of perverted aliens in orbit who yet still have too many rectal probes to use.

 

[Huckleman2000]

If I wasn't an American, this would concern me because the United States doesn't seem to be a mature enough society to handle the sort of responsibility that would come with a "global-strike" weapon.

Actually, even as an American, I don't think we're a mature enough society.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The United States is the sole hold-out in the De-militarization of space treaty, which would (at least nominally) ban space-based weapons, including satellite-killers. So there's clue number 1.

Clue #2 would be the secrecy involved, which is only evoked for military projects.

Conclusion: It's a space weapon, probably a satellite-killer. In the case of an international nuclear war, the enemy's satellites will be the first targets, disrupting their communications, surveillance, and GPS networks. Modern ICBMs are guided by GPS systems, so if you knock out his satellites, he's deaf, dumb, and blind.

A lot of work has gone into anti-satellite technology in the last 20 years, all of it very hush-hush, because of course we don't want to start another space-weapons race, at least not publicly. A lot of it was carried out under cover of the Star-Wars ABM system. Satellites are a lot easier to kill than incoming ICBM's.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The United States is the sole hold-out in the De-militarization of space treaty, which would (at least nominally) ban space-based weapons, including satellite-killers. So there's clue number 1.

Clue #2 would be the secrecy involved, which is only evoked for military projects.

Conclusion: It's a space weapon, probably a satellite-killer. In the case of an international nuclear war, the enemy's satellites will be the first targets, disrupting their communications, surveillance, and GPS networks. Modern ICBMs are guided by GPS systems, so if you knock out his satellites, he's deaf, dumb, and blind.

A lot of work has gone into anti-satellite technology in the last 20 years, all of it very hush-hush, because of course we don't want to start another space-weapons race, at least not publicly. A lot of it was carried out under cover of the Star-Wars ABM system. Satellites are a lot easier to kill than incoming ICBM's.

Except for Russia and China, I see a problem with the theory as those most likely to use nukes don't have any satellites in orbit to kill.

 

[TxRad]

Except for Russia and China, I see a problem with the theory as those most likely to use nukes don't have any satellites in orbit to kill.

Who owns the world if no one else has satellites?

We see you but you can't see us.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Who owns the world if no one else has satellites?

We see you but you can't see us.

I see *snerk* your point, except satellites aren't needed to place a nuclear devices that are small enough to fit in a briefcase.

 

[TxRad]

I see *snerk* your point, except satellites aren't needed to place a nuclear devices that are small enough to fit in a briefcase.

I'm not talking about weapons but more about economics and fast communications. Not to mention entrainment. Moral is a big factor in how well people work and interact.

 

[rgraham666]

So they'll just go back to the day with somewhat inaccurate missiles with really big bombs on them.

What a wonderful step forward.

 

[stephen55]

Unmanned aircraft such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper are changing aerial warfare. They are cheaper than F-22s and the only risk the remote pilot faces is the risk of boredom. So....

What is the US Air Force up to with the X-37B?

Figuring this out isn't rocket science....

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I'm not talking about weapons but more about economics and fast communications. Not to mention entrainment. Moral is a big factor in how well people work and interact.

Most of the ones we have to worry about live in caves, I doubt the latest winner of American Idol is on the watch list. They are more worried about getting information and I doubt that we would be taking out our own satellites that transmit news programs around the world. Or those satellites that carry satphone communications which are ours in most cases, or our European allies.

 

[lisa123414]

Full article here.

Okay, AHer's! What is the X-378's ultra-secret mission?

I would tell you, but then I would have to kill you.

 

[Guest]

Tell me! Me!!!

Oh, wait.

I thought you said kiss.

Never mind.

 

[lisa123414]

well, of course if it is you, then it shall be a kiss....
a very long, exploratory kiss
(like I have the nerve, oh well)

 

[TE999]

Dollars to dimes it's a satellite killer...prolly has (or will have) ECM/microwave gear, a laser and can even ram without damaging itself. It could also take on satellite killers from other nations and maybe IRBM/ICBM's.

 

[SeaCat]

Looking at the published specs of the craft it's not all that large. This means the payload is also going to be quite small.

Weapons? Probably not because of the size of it's payload area.

Anti Satelite weapons are not that small because of their need to have on board fuel supplies as well as controls.

Orbit to ground weapons again aren't that small because of their need for navigation controls as well as shielding for the re entry. (Even pure kinetic weapons need ablative shielding if they are to survive the re entry.)

Most likely uses for the Mini Shuttle are small scale experiments. Emeergency resupply missions to the RSS and Command and Control as well as observation for ground based operations.

Cat