I don't suppose you've got any inside scoop on that X-37b that's going up in about two weeks time, do you? 
I'm curious what that's about!
-Fred
I'm curious what that's about!
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
Don't let it fool you, just because it looks like a Mini-Shuttle, it is really a secret plan to Obliterate Norway and make sure that they {you} never have Snow again... 
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...
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Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Fred,
You've got some nerve. I just got back to the hotel room after a long day of working at KSC and what do I find? You asking me to do more work for you! Geez.
Okay here's some information from the internal Boeing website which is my only source of inside information these days. Boeing takes newclips from various sources and compiles them into one place for us. I used to work in CA for the Phantom Works team but not any more.
*************************************
Air Force to Launch Robotic Winged Space Plane
New York Times Online 04/04/2010
Author: Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After a decade of development, the Air Force this month plans to launch a robotic spacecraft resembling a small space shuttle to conduct technology tests in orbit and then glide home to a California runway.
The ultimate purpose of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle and details about the craft, which has been passed between several government agencies, however, remain a mystery as it is prepared for launch April 19 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
''As long as you're confused you're in good shape,'' said defense analyst John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org. ''I looked into this a couple of years ago -- the entire sort of hypersonic, suborbital, scramjet nest of programs -- of which there are upwards of a dozen. The more I studied it the less I understood it.''
The quietly scheduled launch culminates the project's long and expensive journey from NASA 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 X-37 program, but the current total has not been released.
The launch date, landing sites and a fact sheet were released by Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Angie I. Blair. She said more information would be released soon, but questions on cost and other matters submitted by e-mail weren't answered by Friday.
While the massive space shuttles have been likened to cargo-hauling trucks, the X-37B is more like a sports car, with the equivalent trunk capacity.
Built by Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works, the 11,000-pound craft is 9 1/2 feet tall and just over 29 feet long, with a wingspan of less than 15 feet. It has two angled tail fins rather than a single vertical stabilizer.
Unlike the shuttle, it will be launched like a satellite, housed in a fairing atop an expendable Atlas V rocket, and deploy solar panels to provide electrical power in orbit.
The Air Force released only a general description of the mission objectives: testing of guidance, navigation, control, thermal protection and autonomous operation in orbit, re-entry and landing.
The mission's length was not released but the Air Force said the X-37B can stay in orbit for 270 days. The primary landing site will be northwest of Los Angeles at coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The significance of the X-37B is unclear because the program has been around for so long, said Peter A. Wilson, a senior defense research analyst for the RAND Corp. who several years ago served as executive director of a congressional panel that evaluated national security space launch requirements.
''From my perspective it's a little puzzling as to whether this is the beginning of a program or the end of one,'' Wilson said Friday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.
As NASA anticipated the end of the shuttle, the X-37B was viewed as a working prototype of the next-generation design of a fully reusable spacecraft, but the space agency lost interest and the Air Force picked it up, Wilson said.
''It's viewed as a prototype of a vehicle that could carry small payloads into orbit, carry out a variety of military missions and then return to Earth,'' he said.
The Air Force statement said the X-37 program is being used ''to continue full-scale development'' and orbital testing of a long-duration, reusable space vehicle.
Wilson sees the upcoming launch as ''a one-shot deal.''
He acknowledged that he does not know if there is a classified portion of the program but said there is no evidence of a second vehicle being built to follow the prototype. In aerospace, a prototype typically remains a test vehicle used to prove and improve designs for successive operational vehicles.
To fully function as a completely reusable launch system there would also have to be development of a booster rocket that is capable of landing itself back on Earth to be reassembled with the spacecraft, according to Wilson, who does not see any support for such an initiative.
Wilson also said the usefulness of payloads such as small military satellites is in question, which would undercut the need for the launch system.
The X-37B is now under the direction of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office. Its mission is to speed up development of combat-support systems and weapons systems.
Operating since 2003, the office has worked on several things, including upgrading the air defenses around the nation's capital as an anti-terrorism measure and assessing threats to U.S. combat operations, according to an Air Force fact sheet.
NASA began the X-37 program in 1999 in a cooperative deal with Boeing to roughly split the $173 million cost of developing an experimental space plane. The Air Force put in a small share.
The X-37, initially intended to be carried into space by shuttles in 2003, was a larger version of the Air Force X-40A, a concept for a ''Space Maneuver Vehicle'' to put small military satellites in orbit. The X-40A was dropped from a helicopter in glide and landing tests but was never capable of actual space flight.
In 2002, NASA awarded Boeing a $301 million contract to complete a version of the X-37 to be used in approach and landing tests and begin designing an orbital version that would fly in 2006.
But in 2004 NASA turned the project over to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Department's research and development arm. In 2006, the X-37 was put through captive-carry and drop tests using Mojave-based Scaled Composite LLC's White Knight, the jet that launched SpaceShipOne on the first private suborbital manned space flights.
The Air Force then began work on the X-37B, projecting it would fly in 2008. An Air Force News story at the time reported that the first one or two flights would check out the performance of the vehicle itself and then it would become a space test platform with unspecified components flown in its experiment bay.
You've got some nerve. I just got back to the hotel room after a long day of working at KSC and what do I find? You asking me to do more work for you! Geez.
Okay here's some information from the internal Boeing website which is my only source of inside information these days. Boeing takes newclips from various sources and compiles them into one place for us. I used to work in CA for the Phantom Works team but not any more.
*************************************
Air Force to Launch Robotic Winged Space Plane
New York Times Online 04/04/2010
Author: Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After a decade of development, the Air Force this month plans to launch a robotic spacecraft resembling a small space shuttle to conduct technology tests in orbit and then glide home to a California runway.
The ultimate purpose of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle and details about the craft, which has been passed between several government agencies, however, remain a mystery as it is prepared for launch April 19 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
''As long as you're confused you're in good shape,'' said defense analyst John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org. ''I looked into this a couple of years ago -- the entire sort of hypersonic, suborbital, scramjet nest of programs -- of which there are upwards of a dozen. The more I studied it the less I understood it.''
The quietly scheduled launch culminates the project's long and expensive journey from NASA 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 X-37 program, but the current total has not been released.
The launch date, landing sites and a fact sheet were released by Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Angie I. Blair. She said more information would be released soon, but questions on cost and other matters submitted by e-mail weren't answered by Friday.
While the massive space shuttles have been likened to cargo-hauling trucks, the X-37B is more like a sports car, with the equivalent trunk capacity.
Built by Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works, the 11,000-pound craft is 9 1/2 feet tall and just over 29 feet long, with a wingspan of less than 15 feet. It has two angled tail fins rather than a single vertical stabilizer.
Unlike the shuttle, it will be launched like a satellite, housed in a fairing atop an expendable Atlas V rocket, and deploy solar panels to provide electrical power in orbit.
The Air Force released only a general description of the mission objectives: testing of guidance, navigation, control, thermal protection and autonomous operation in orbit, re-entry and landing.
The mission's length was not released but the Air Force said the X-37B can stay in orbit for 270 days. The primary landing site will be northwest of Los Angeles at coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The significance of the X-37B is unclear because the program has been around for so long, said Peter A. Wilson, a senior defense research analyst for the RAND Corp. who several years ago served as executive director of a congressional panel that evaluated national security space launch requirements.
''From my perspective it's a little puzzling as to whether this is the beginning of a program or the end of one,'' Wilson said Friday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.
As NASA anticipated the end of the shuttle, the X-37B was viewed as a working prototype of the next-generation design of a fully reusable spacecraft, but the space agency lost interest and the Air Force picked it up, Wilson said.
''It's viewed as a prototype of a vehicle that could carry small payloads into orbit, carry out a variety of military missions and then return to Earth,'' he said.
The Air Force statement said the X-37 program is being used ''to continue full-scale development'' and orbital testing of a long-duration, reusable space vehicle.
Wilson sees the upcoming launch as ''a one-shot deal.''
He acknowledged that he does not know if there is a classified portion of the program but said there is no evidence of a second vehicle being built to follow the prototype. In aerospace, a prototype typically remains a test vehicle used to prove and improve designs for successive operational vehicles.
To fully function as a completely reusable launch system there would also have to be development of a booster rocket that is capable of landing itself back on Earth to be reassembled with the spacecraft, according to Wilson, who does not see any support for such an initiative.
Wilson also said the usefulness of payloads such as small military satellites is in question, which would undercut the need for the launch system.
The X-37B is now under the direction of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office. Its mission is to speed up development of combat-support systems and weapons systems.
Operating since 2003, the office has worked on several things, including upgrading the air defenses around the nation's capital as an anti-terrorism measure and assessing threats to U.S. combat operations, according to an Air Force fact sheet.
NASA began the X-37 program in 1999 in a cooperative deal with Boeing to roughly split the $173 million cost of developing an experimental space plane. The Air Force put in a small share.
The X-37, initially intended to be carried into space by shuttles in 2003, was a larger version of the Air Force X-40A, a concept for a ''Space Maneuver Vehicle'' to put small military satellites in orbit. The X-40A was dropped from a helicopter in glide and landing tests but was never capable of actual space flight.
In 2002, NASA awarded Boeing a $301 million contract to complete a version of the X-37 to be used in approach and landing tests and begin designing an orbital version that would fly in 2006.
But in 2004 NASA turned the project over to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Department's research and development arm. In 2006, the X-37 was put through captive-carry and drop tests using Mojave-based Scaled Composite LLC's White Knight, the jet that launched SpaceShipOne on the first private suborbital manned space flights.
The Air Force then began work on the X-37B, projecting it would fly in 2008. An Air Force News story at the time reported that the first one or two flights would check out the performance of the vehicle itself and then it would become a space test platform with unspecified components flown in its experiment bay.
Samantha
Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.
Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.
Awww, Sam! Poor timing! I'm sorry! Thanks a snugglebunch though! You're the best rocket scientificky gal I know! By which I mean the coolest aerospace engineer! Or was that aeronautical? I forget...
Main issue was 'Thank you', though
So DARPA has it's hands on it eh? You sure there's no high-tech form of weaponized next-gen killer robot satellite FROM SPACE involved? I hear GDI lost it's ion cannon...
I'm gonna take a guess and say it's the new component for aiming their earthquake gun more efficiently.Then see how long it takes until I get kidnapped by men in black in an unmarked helicopter and flown to some undisclosed location where there'll be fun times with waterboarding.
I feel like tracking this thing's path and checking it against things like natural disaster occurances and such. It's a fun way of passing time.
I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but I love theorizing my way around possibilities that are not completely remote. Or insane. Or both
-Fred
Main issue was 'Thank you', though
So DARPA has it's hands on it eh? You sure there's no high-tech form of weaponized next-gen killer robot satellite FROM SPACE involved? I hear GDI lost it's ion cannon...
I'm gonna take a guess and say it's the new component for aiming their earthquake gun more efficiently.Then see how long it takes until I get kidnapped by men in black in an unmarked helicopter and flown to some undisclosed location where there'll be fun times with waterboarding.
I feel like tracking this thing's path and checking it against things like natural disaster occurances and such. It's a fun way of passing time.
I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but I love theorizing my way around possibilities that are not completely remote. Or insane. Or both
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
Oh and yeah. I almost forgot.
You can't hit Norway with anything - we've got too much snow!
Unless... It's more snow! GASP!!
-Fred
You can't hit Norway with anything - we've got too much snow!
Unless... It's more snow! GASP!!
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
You are welcome Fred.Fred Buer wrote:Awww, Sam! Poor timing! I'm sorry! Thanks a snugglebunch though! You're the best rocket scientificky gal I know! By which I mean the coolest aerospace engineer! Or was that aeronautical? I forget...
Main issue was 'Thank you', though
FYI here are the differences:
Rocket Scientists have Ph.D.s (pick any flavor of science/engineering you like)
Aerospace Engineers specialize with rockets and items that leave earth's atmosphere
Aeronautical Engineers specialize with airplanes and items that stay in the earth's atmosphere
But really you can exchange an aerospace for aeronautical with a little bit of effort. I'm #2 but could do #3. I'm about several years away from a degree to being #1.
Use me while you can. I might be loosing my space connections in another year. Either that or the men in black cars might kidnap me to work on a secret project to bomb Norway with more snow.
Samantha
Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.
Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.
I'm not worried. I don't think norwegians would notice even if the poles shifted. We might finally put on an overcoat or something.
-Fred
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
Kudos on the clever wordplay.
However I gotta ask - What do you do? And what is your jobtitle?
And do you really have an earthquake gun?
-Fred
However I gotta ask - What do you do? And what is your jobtitle?
And do you really have an earthquake gun?
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
I was just teasing, I don't use "Sam" in my nickname, but it is the name I go by Saw the opportunity for some great word play and felt like it fit in the topic very well.
I am in the Air Force as a scientist (specializing in physics), though. I could really use some alien technology right now, would make my job a lot easier. Sadly (or perhaps gladly, depending on your perspective), we're stuck with the laws of physics as we presently know them. I just moved to Florida with the military and I am looking for a house (think I have a good candidate as long as nothing unforeseen falls through) so if you ask me what I do I really wouldn't be able to answer, other than it's something with information processing and physics. In the next few weeks, I should get a better idea of what I am going to be doing for a living...lol
As for the earthquake gun, doh! You weren't supposed to guess what was behind our X-37B cover story!!! LOL
Saw the opportunity for some great word play and felt like it fit in the topic very well.I am in the Air Force as a scientist (specializing in physics), though. I could really use some alien technology right now, would make my job a lot easier. Sadly (or perhaps gladly, depending on your perspective), we're stuck with the laws of physics as we presently know them. I just moved to Florida with the military and I am looking for a house (think I have a good candidate as long as nothing unforeseen falls through) so if you ask me what I do I really wouldn't be able to answer, other than it's something with information processing and physics. In the next few weeks, I should get a better idea of what I am going to be doing for a living...lol
As for the earthquake gun, doh! You weren't supposed to guess what was behind our X-37B cover story!!! LOL
Well, something needs to pinpoint those pesky signals from HAARP up in Alaska, and that thingy aboard the X-37b's just the ticket!
I'M ON TO YOU!
-Fred
I'M ON TO YOU!
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
