Warzone/The Drive: This Is Our First Look At The Secretive X-37B Spaceplane With Its Cargo Bay Doors Open
The mysterious craft is currently on its sixth orbital mission. The last one lasted 780 days.
A video of the Air Force's secretive X-37B opening its bay doors has come to our attention. It shows the 29-foot-long X-37B in an upright position, with its doors swinging open and its solar array, which fits conformally inside the bay, beginning to deploy. It isn't exactly clear when the clip first emerged, but it has been used by Boeing as part of the Air Force Association's ongoing annual convention.
@DutchSpace spotted the clip and worked to blow the video up a bit for better viewing. The X-37B's payload bay is widely described as roughly the size of a large pickup truck's flatbed. The miniature space shuttle's bay is a major feature that gives it such a high degree of flexibility. Aside from a handful of experimental technologies, very little is known about what the highly maneuverable spacecraft has been carrying into orbit for such long periods of time, but it is widely thought that experimental reconnaissance and communications payloads are a major part of the program. Rumors have circulated for years that it could also be used to release small 'cubesats' into orbit, support testing of anti-satellite technologies, and more.
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WNU Editor: Cannot tell much from the video. But what is shown is intriguing.
3 comments:
Some of the things I would look at are the hardware (hinges, clasps, etc). It could tell you about durability, use, ...
Their are coatings, but you still have thicknesses that might tell you about strength of materials and intended frequency of use. Every little thing matters.
"During a visit to Boeing, for instance, Soviet scientists secretly applied adhesive to the bottom of their shoes in order to covertly collect metal samples from the floor."
www.damninteresting.com/the-farewell-dossier
Correct, the video nor the article tells us much. I think this is the idea. We do not want to reveal many details. The idea is to serve notice to the major world powers that the United States has a viable military space program. The article reinforces what has been known for sometime that all of the major world powers are making heavy investments in space based weapons and weapons systems. Of course the US was slow out of the gate and is having to catch up but we appear to be moving in the right direction here. COVID-19 and the government response to it slowed much of our momentum but we appear to be slowly regaining our footing!!
Exactly!!!
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