Boeing
David Axe, National Interest: Could The Air Force's X-37B 'Orbital Drone' Be The First Of America's Space Weapons?
For now, space weapons are prohibited by treaty.
Key point: The Air Force denies that the X-37B has ever carried weapons. Overtly arming a spacecraft would be a violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
A Dutch skywatcher achieved a rare feat in late June and early July 2019. Using a 10-inch-diameter telescope fitted with a camera, Ralf Vandebergh photographed the U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane in mid-mission 210 miles over Earth’s surface.
"We can recognize a bit of the nose, payload bay and tail of this mini-shuttle, with even a sign of some smaller detail," Vandebergh told Space.com.
Vandebergh had been hunting for the robotic spacecraft for months and finally managed to track it down in May 2019, according to Space.com reporter Leonard David. But it took a few more weeks to actually photograph the roughly 29-feet-long robotic shuttle.
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WNU Editor: Space weapons are prohibited by treaty (for now).
1 comment:
The vehicle itself was potentially a weapon test for a satellite-killer drone, though there will certainly be defensive applications for the tech as well. The purpose of X-37B's space trials was to test a fuelless orbital shifting technique. Theoretically the Space Force can launch any number of objects with these fuselage wings and a similar orbit to X-37B's.
If it's utilized on a militarily significant satellite then during times of war they could shift it's orbit every couple of hours to evade China's laboriously preset ground-based satellite targeting missiles. They can also leave large numbers of dormant drone spacecraft up there, and when war breaks out they have an orbital stockpile of crash derby contestants ready to go with no traceable launch trajectories.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a28496447/x-37b-disappear/
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