I wrote about this same subject about four years ago, and I’m still thoroughly intrigued by it.
The U.S. Air Force has an amazing flying machine called the X-37B. Perhaps you haven’t heard of it, because “news” sources in our mainstream media haven’t done much to publicize its existence. But the X-37B is an unmanned space plane that resembles a scaled-down version of the retired manned space shuttles (it’s about a quarter their size).
Built by Boeing, the reusable “drone” measures about 29 feet long and 15 feet wide and has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.
The X-37B project began with NASA in 1999, and its operation and administration was transferred to the U.S. Department of Defense in 2004. The best I can tell, two X-37Bs exist, and are each used in various missions.
Also known as Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), the first X-37B made its maiden test flight in April 2006 at California’s Edwards Air Force Base. Its first orbital mission – called OTV-1 – began in April 2010, after it was launched via an Atlas V rocket from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.
After staying aloft for 226 days, it touched down at Vandenberg AFB, near Santa Barbara, Calif.
The next time an X-37B went up, it stayed up for 469 days before landing in June of 2012 (a record at the time for a “launch-and-land” type of craft).
The X-37B’s third mission (OTV-3) lasted 675 days, ending in October 2014, and its fourth (OTV-4) went on for a whopping 718 days, concluding in May 2017 – after just short of two years!
Now, an X-37B has recently passed 200 days in orbit on the project’s latest clandestine mission (OTV-5), which began last September when the spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (of course Elon Musk is involved).
Yep, the Air Force has had a robotic shuttle-like craft that can circle Earth for unprecedented lengths of time. But don’t ask what the X-37B does while orbiting for so long, because while the Air Force willingly brags about the technological achievement aspect of its cosmic mini-van, sharing details of its missions is another story.
That’s the intriguing part. And obviously, that leaves the door wide open for speculation – some of which is, of course, a bit far-fetched (although not necessarily out of the realm of possibility).
Is the X-37B some sort of space bomber, capable of pinpointing and nailing targets from miles above Earth?
Probably not.
Is it or absorbing data from other countries’ satellites, or playing galactic bumper cars with them? Is it peering deep into jungles, deserts and mountain ranges with high-powered infrared cameras?
Maybe.
Is it spying on some sort of “enemy” outposts and installations, and perhaps looking through the windows of their commanding officers’ offices to see what classified paperwork they left sitting in plain sight?
Probably.
While there’s no proof of what exactly the X-37B has been doing during its four competed missions and fifth that’s still in progress, it does it in a hurry, because like other machines that travel in a vacuum without the burden of friction, it moves at about 17,000 miles per hour. And since the Air Force won’t say, who knows how long the remarkable contraption could keep zipping around Earth or whether it can “park” next to other spacecraft in order to learn from them (or mess with them)?
Like I said, pretty intriguing stuff.
Anyway, I guess Air Force brass consider us regular folk are on a need-to-know basis with regard to details of what their high-tech space toy is doing, and they’ve apparently determined we don’t need to know. But Google “X-37B” and you’ll see many articles about it posted by a variety of news sources, from the obscure “watchman on the wall” variety (that specialize in delving into the stuff our government would prefer go unnoticed by us regular types out here in the trenches) to the Foxes, CNNs and BBCs of the world (although, as I said, the well-known sources apparently don’t feel led to use any primetime TV airtime on it).
Anyway, I think we can safely assume the X-37B isn’t setting the stage for a big new Disney attraction called “Spaced Out,” or carrying out experiments for Bill Nye the Science Guy to determine what happens to gerbils or algae when they’re subjected to a weightless environment for an extended period. No, its orbital marathons are likely not about a PBS kids’ project, but rather some form of “national security” measures about which the average Joe don’t need to know.
In a way, the way the Air Force treats its mysterious X-37B reminds me of agent Kay in “Men in Black” saying, “move along folks, nothing to see here” (or however it went), when we know darn well there is.
And consider this: We know the Air Force has the X-37B, but we don’t know what it does. But I’m going to say its highly likely the Air Force also has equipment we don’t know about doing more things we don’t know about.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. His columns are posted online at www.houstonherald.com. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.