Spaceplanes - Cases for and Against
Discussion
Beati Dogu said:
Meanwhile, the US Air Force's diminutive X-37B space plane continues to rack up the mileage.
Well it has now beaten its own record with 675 days in orbit. Launched on May 20th 2015, there's no sign of the Air Force bringing it back home anytime soon.http://www.space.com/36205-x-37b-space-plane-break...
Yeah BABY!The X-37B is back after nearly 2 years (718 days) in orbit.
It landed at the Kennedy Space Centre's Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida this morning. Previous missions have all landed at Vandenberg AFB in California.
No word on Austin Powers yet.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/05/air-forces...
It landed at the Kennedy Space Centre's Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida this morning. Previous missions have all landed at Vandenberg AFB in California.
No word on Austin Powers yet.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/05/air-forces...
Eric Mc said:
Nice to see the runway being used for its intended purpose again. Touchdown speed looks pretty fast - probably (like the Shuttle) around 200 knots.
Indeed, but smaller birds always look quicker 
That looked quite a big flare but perhaps that is normal for these types. I am no expert.Love that shuttle it goes past.
Edited by Gandahar on Sunday 7th May 18:46
Gandahar said:
Eric Mc said:
Nice to see the runway being used for its intended purpose again. Touchdown speed looks pretty fast - probably (like the Shuttle) around 200 knots.
Indeed, but smaller birds always look quicker That looked quite a big flare but perhaps that is normal for these types. I am no expert.Love that shuttle it goes past.
Edited by Gandahar on Sunday 7th May 18:46
Matt Harper said:
It created a very significant sonic boom as it flew in over central FL yesterday morning - rattled the windows of my house.
It only emitted one loud concussion.
On previous shuttle landings that tracked across the FL peninsula, there were tandem 'booms' - why was that, I wonder?
IIRC with the Shuttle, a sonic shock was generated by the tail as well as the nose. Either the X-37B doesn't generate a tail shock, or being smaller, the two shockwaves are so close together you can't hear them separatelyIt only emitted one loud concussion.
On previous shuttle landings that tracked across the FL peninsula, there were tandem 'booms' - why was that, I wonder?
Yes, Concorde had 2 sonic booms too. We used to hear the French ones going supersonic over the western approaches on their way between Paris & New York. The concussive double boom used to echo down the chimney actually. 
The Shuttle's landing speed was around 220 mph, although a couple of times they accidentally landed much slower than that. Apparently there aren't many reference points at Edwards Air Force Base because of its desert & dry lake bed location. This made judging the descent trickier and led to a couple of relatively slow speed landings. And by relatively, they were still about 180 mph. Faster than a commercial airliner, but about the same as Concorde as it happens.
Following the Challenger disaster they added a drogue chute to the Shuttle as a safety feature. Interesting that the X-37B has one too.
The Shuttle's landing speed was around 220 mph, although a couple of times they accidentally landed much slower than that. Apparently there aren't many reference points at Edwards Air Force Base because of its desert & dry lake bed location. This made judging the descent trickier and led to a couple of relatively slow speed landings. And by relatively, they were still about 180 mph. Faster than a commercial airliner, but about the same as Concorde as it happens.
Following the Challenger disaster they added a drogue chute to the Shuttle as a safety feature. Interesting that the X-37B has one too.
Eric Mc said:
That sneaked in.
I was surprised to hear it had landed after all of the speculation a while ago when NOTAMs were published but nothing happened.It's an intriguing piece of kit, I suspect it's being used as a recyclable spy sat as much as anything. Isn't the average satellite build time 10 years so any tech on it isn't that cutting edge by the time it launches? With this thing the latest and not necessarily most reliable things can be put up with little regard for the longevity as they know its coming back anyway.
Beati Dogu said:
Following the Challenger disaster they added a drogue chute to the Shuttle as a safety feature. Interesting that the X-37B has one too.
It had originally been intended that the Orbiters would have a drag chute. However, they decided that the weight of the chute and the release mechanism would be saved so that they could carry more payload. They thought that using the split rudder as a speedbrake would be sufficient.However, a number of early Shuttle landings experienced serious damage to brake discs and (on one occasion) an exploding tyre.
When the programme was examined after the Challenger accident, it was decided that perhaps a drag chute was a good idea after all and all the orbiters were retro fitted, apart from Endeavour which, as the replacement for Challenger, had a drag chute fitted from when it was built.
Nobody was.
The interesting thing is that a few weeks ago there was a lot of fuss and hoo ha raised when NOTAMS were issued for the Cape Canaveral area - which led everybody to believe that the X-37 was going to land at Cape Canaveral then. Nothing happened and the DoD said it was an exercise.
Now, when it ACTUALLY happens, no NOTAMs were issued.
Is that not a bit dangerous?
The interesting thing is that a few weeks ago there was a lot of fuss and hoo ha raised when NOTAMS were issued for the Cape Canaveral area - which led everybody to believe that the X-37 was going to land at Cape Canaveral then. Nothing happened and the DoD said it was an exercise.
Now, when it ACTUALLY happens, no NOTAMs were issued.
Is that not a bit dangerous?
Eric Mc said:
Nobody was.
The interesting thing is that a few weeks ago there was a lot of fuss and hoo ha raised when NOTAMS were issued for the Cape Canaveral area - which led everybody to believe that the X-37 was going to land at Cape Canaveral then. Nothing happened and the DoD said it was an exercise.
Now, when it ACTUALLY happens, no NOTAMs were issued.
Is that not a bit dangerous?
Pretty sure I read somewhere that NOTAMs were issued overnight, so were missed by reportersThe interesting thing is that a few weeks ago there was a lot of fuss and hoo ha raised when NOTAMS were issued for the Cape Canaveral area - which led everybody to believe that the X-37 was going to land at Cape Canaveral then. Nothing happened and the DoD said it was an exercise.
Now, when it ACTUALLY happens, no NOTAMs were issued.
Is that not a bit dangerous?
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