Free Republic

After six months in orbit, the U.S. Air Force X-37B UOV (unmanned orbital vehicle) is proving elusive to amateur astronomers. This international collection of sky watchers have proved remarkably adept at spotting orbital objects in the past, including classified ones like the X-37B. One notable incident occurred two years ago, when a U.S. spy satellite fell out of orbit (apparently because of a failure in its maneuvering system). The amateur astronomers were able to track it. If this had not been an American reconnaissance satellite, there would have been no media attention to this, because 4-5 satellites a month fall...

On April 22 the Air Force launched the X-37B, an unmanned miniature space shuttle look-alike that was cloaked in secrecy and described in official gobbledygook that still defies the best decryption efforts of NSA. Here’s a sample:...“The program supports technology risk reduction, experimentation and operational concept development.” Nothing about this mission makes sense. What aroused my curiosity was an article in the NY Times that Harvard astronomer Jonathan Mc Dowell had reported the upper stage was sent into an unknown orbit around the sun. Now the upper stage of any launch vehicle shoves the main payload into its final orbit,...

Call it a reusable space vehicle. Call it a space plane. But whatever you do, just don’t call it a space weapon. That’s the message from the Air Force after last week’s launch of its X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which can stay on orbit up to 270 days. The Air Force won’t say what, exactly, the robotic space plane will be doing there, how long it will linger this time, or even how much it costs. But the military is already in the process of building a second aircraft, which will fly next year. Officially the Air Force has described...

A top secret space plane developed by the US military has blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden voyage. Billed as a small shuttle, the unmanned X-37B heralds the next generation of space exploration. It will be the first craft to carry out an autonomous re-entry in the history of the US programme. But its mission - and its cost - remain shrouded in secrecy. The Air Force said the launch was a success but would give no further details.

Atlas V X-37B OTV Cape launch set for April 22 Release Number: 040410 4/21/2010 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla -- The 45th Space Wing is set to launch an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle from Space Launch Complex 41 on April 22, 2010. The rocket will carry the Air Force's first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). The launch window for this mission is 7:51-8:02 p.m. The X-37B will provide a flexible space test platform to conduct various experiments and allow satellite sensors, subsystems, components and associated technology to be efficiently transported to and from the space environment...

The Air Force quietly prepares to launch the X-37B, an unmanned shuttle into space on April 22, just days after the Discovery shuttle returns to earth. Developed by the Air Force for nearly a decade, the X-37B's scheduled launch coincides with a wind down in shuttle operations by NASA. The Air Force has been practicing test landings with a prototype of the X-37B at an undisclosed location for years. The Air Force spacecraft's launch has been delayed several times, and was most recently postponed to accommodate Discovery's return. The X-37B will stay in orbit for up to nine months and...

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. 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...

The Air Force is proceeding with testing an unmanned space vehicle, part of a former NASA program that was cut as the space agency focused space exploration goals. The X-37B is designed to perform long-duration testing in low-Earth orbit of new technologies. The unmanned vehicle will carry experiments into space, then return with them to Earth. "The (orbital test vehicle) will provide the Air Force the ability to verify new technologies and components operate as expected in the space environment, as well as inspect these technologies or components back on the ground before they are integrated into highly expensive satellites...

I’m pretty sure Jared Lee Laughner was ranting about the X-37B in the flag burning video under YouTube channel Starhitshnoz. Jared: “There's a new bird on my right shoulder. The beak is two feet and lime green. The rarest bird on earth, there's no feathers, but small grey scales all over the body. It's with one large red eye with a light blue iris. The bird feet are the same as a woodpecker. This new bird and there's only one, the gender is not female or male. The wings of this bird are beautiful; 3 feet wide with the shape...

The robotic X-37B space plane, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, will land at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where Air Force officials are gearing up for its return. As of today (Oct. 12), the X-37B mini-shuttle has been in orbit since December 2012 and racked up a record-shattering 671 days in space. ... The Air Force has two X-37B space planes in its fleet and has been flying them on secret missions since 2010. But the exact purpose of those flights have been shrouded in secrecy. The mission in orbit now, called Orbital Test Vehicle 3...

NASA's Opportunity rover, a Mars exploration rover has been active for four years on Mars travelling fro a distance of more than 25 miles, captured images through its microscopic imager camera. A formation of a cross inside a circle was observed in the images. According to a post on UFO Sightings Daily by Scott Waring, the photos, five in number, were captured on July 12 at 10.23 UTC with the photo ID Sol 3720. The source of the photos is the NASA site . Scott Waring explained that the cross inside a circle was unusual and could possibly be three...

Workers at a New Jersey treatment plant say they saw a heavy, metallic object fall from the sky Wednesday, and they want to know where the potentially deadly projectile came from. The employees at Secaucus Treatment Works said the 5-by-5 inch piece of metal debris hit a railing, ricocheted off a concrete tank, then hit the ground. It landed about 25 feet from where employees were working. "It came close. It came pretty close," said employee Victor Suppa. It "could have killed somebody, absolutely" if it hit anyone, added operations foreman Steven Bronowich.

All over the internet recently, sciFy vs. reality and a Mars satellite for petty cash: That breaks the monopoly. Faced with the spectre of other nations publishing uncensored Mars images, NASA and JPL have started publishing some much more obvious images than they have in the past including a totally uncensored video (JPL) showing large-scale structure. A few items... JPL uncensored video showing large-scale structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W7-4nSye4lM Raw JPL video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka08deWohpQ Electrical device of some sort with helical coil wound around it Device is on the left, about a third of the way down on the image Gear of some sort....

The dark side of the moon that is.Did you catch this morning’s total lunar eclipse? It was pretty awesome.Referred to as a “blood moon” it occurs when the the moon is in full phase and its orbit meets the orbit of the earth around the sun. When directly aligned the moon is completely enveloped by earth’s shadow, with jusst a thin band of infrared light shining through and bouncing off the moon’s surface, thus creating the illusion of a “blood red” moon. “You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it’s not. The rim of...

A new research has revealed that the deep ocean water temperature has not changed in the past decade. This study is based on the analysis of satellite data whereby the deep water temperature was measured by researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The data analysis largely showed that deep ocean water was immune to global warming. Global warming has largely affected the temperature of upper Earth in a manner that it is leading to rise in global temperature, but surprisingly the temperature of deep ocean water was found to be unchanged since 2005.

Had humans been alive billions of years ago, when the universe was more compact, it may have been easier to leapfrog from planet to planet or solar system to solar system. But today’s distances are so great as to seem insurmountable. Humans Hardly Built for Jet Travel, Let Alone Space Travel Some of my friends tell me they cannot bear to be on a plane for more than a few hours. This is perhaps the leading reason why people go crazy and try to open exit doors in mid-flight. I count “journey time” from the moment I leave my...

Explanation: Taken from an Atlantic beach, Cape Canaveral, planet Earth, four identically framed digital images are combined in this night skyscape. Slightly shifted short star trails dot the sky, but the exposure times were adjusted to follow the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket. The September 21 launch delivered a Dragon X capsule filled with supplies to the International Space Station. Above the bright flare seen just after launch, the rocket's first stage firing trails upward from the left. After separation, the second stage burn begins near center with the vehicle climbing toward low Earth orbit. At the horizon, the...

PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — The anticipated blockbuster return of El Niño is looking more like it will be a flop, a climatologist said Monday. Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory say that unless developing weak-to-modest El Niño conditions strengthen, California will continue to stay bone dry. El Niño describes a weather pattern involving a warming of equatorial waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, a condition that is associated with increased rainfall on the west coast of North America. El Niño conditions in 1997 and 1998 doubled rainfall up and down California, Patzert said. “Those very strong El Niños happen every 30...

A NASA spacecraft built to study the atmosphere of Mars like never before will arrive at the Red Planet tonight (Sept. 21) and you can watch it live online. After 10 months in deep-space, NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft is expected to enter orbit around Mars and begin a one-year mission studying the planet's upper atmosphere. The Mars arrival will cap a 442 million-mile (711 million kilometers) trek across the solar system. You can watch the MAVEN spacecraft arrive at Mars on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, in a live webcast that runs from 9:30 p.m. to...

The International Space Station is ready to receive more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments packed inside a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Saturday. Ground crews loaded last-minute supplies, including a habitat with 20 mice, sensitive research specimens, and other gear, into the Dragon capsule's pressurized cargo cabin Friday before hoisting the Falcon 9 rocket vertical at Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad. The cargo's installation Friday set the stage for a final countdown leading to an instantaneous launch opportunity at 2:14 a.m. EDT (0614 GMT), roughly the moment Earth's rotation puts Cape...