CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The military’s small, top-secret version of the space shuttle rocketed into orbit yesterday for a repeat mystery mission, two years after making the first flight of its kind.
The Air Force launched the unmanned spacecraft hidden on top of an Atlas V rocket. It is the second flight for this original X-37B space plane. The craft circled the planet for seven months in 2010. A second X-37B spacecraft spent more than a year in orbit.
These high-tech mystery machines are 29 feet long, about one-quarter the size of NASA’s old space shuttles, and can land automatically on a runway. The two previous touchdowns were in southern California; this one might end on NASA’s 3-mile-long runway once reserved for the space agency’s shuttles.
The military isn’t saying much if anything about this new secret mission. In fact, launch commentary ended 17 minutes into the flight, and a news blackout followed.
But one scientific observer, Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, speculates the space plane is carrying sensors designed for spying and likely is serving as a test for future satellites. He dismisses rumors of “exotic ideas” for the X-37B, such as weaponry or shadowing a Chinese satellite.
McDowell said on-board sensors could be capable of imaging or intercepting transmissions of electronic emissions from terrorist training sites in Afghanistan or other hot spots.
The beauty of a reusable space plane is that it can be launched on short notice based on need, McDowell said.
Now retired museum pieces, NASA’s space shuttles stretch 122 feet long, have 78-foot wingspans and weigh more than 170,000 pounds. The X-37B wingspan is 15 feet, and the 11,000-pound, Boeing-built vessel requires the hefty Atlas V for hoisting. It is solar powered.
The two previous secret X-37B flights were in 200-plus-mile-high orbits, as calculated by amateur satellite trackers. The International Space Station orbits about 250 miles high.