

Images of US Military Space Drone - jaynate
http://news.discovery.com/space/slide-show-military-mini-shuttle-landing-california.html

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c1sc0
"In the early hours of Dec. 3, 2010, the X-37B became the first U.S. space
vehicle to make an autonomous runway landing from orbit." I find this snippet
far more interesting than the speculation about what the mission was about.
Maybe I don't even _want_ to know what it was doing, but it's good to see that
the military is still pushing technology development. Also see: autonomous
drones.

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pedrocr
The soviet shuttle imitation did this in its only flight back in 1988:

 _The automated landing took place on a runway at Baikonur Cosmodrome where,
despite a lateral wind speed of 61.2 kilometres per hour (38.0 mph), it landed
only 3 metres (9.8 ft) laterally and 10 metres (33 ft) longitudinally from the
target mark.[4] The unmanned flight was the first time that a spacecraft of
this size and complexity had been launched, completed maneuvers in orbit, re-
entered the atmosphere, and landed under automatic guidance._

If the figures are true and not just Soviet propaganda, that's one amazing
automated landing.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)#Flight_into_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_\(spacecraft\)#Flight_into_space)

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mikepink
The captions only show up when you hover over the images :/

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reemrevnivek
Thanks for the tip! It's unlikely that I would have discovered the captions
without this comment...

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hopeless
The Register has had some really good coverage of this plane over the past
year:

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/21/x37b_secret_launch_o...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/21/x37b_secret_launch_options/)

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/04/x37b_ski/>

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/07/2nd_x37b_in_orbit/>

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Andrenid
I got excited by the title, as I misunderstood it to mean that we would
actually see the images the drone took (the photos of the drone are still
interesting though).

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jaynate
Sorry about that, edited the title. Neat toy, though.

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jonursenbach
Really curious as to what their mission was/is.

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jarin
Ostensibly it's a versatile spy drone, but kind of makes you wonder when you
see the guys in hazmat suits.

Edit: It makes sense if the drone uses hydrazine or other toxic propellants
though.

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alexbell
Yes, it's nothing out of the ordinary. After the shuttle lands personnel in
similar suits can be seen with similar sensor wands going over the shuttle.

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georgieporgie
You can really see how tiny that thing is in the last two photos. I've never
seen a photo of the Space Shuttle next to anything I can relate to, so I was
amazed how enormous it was on a visit to the Houston Space Center. The only
relevant photo I can find puts it atop a 747:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atlantis_on_Shuttle_Carrie...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atlantis_on_Shuttle_Carrier_Aircraft.jpg)

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gaius
It's curious how shuttle-like it looks; without a crew to accomodate it could
be literally any shape you wanted, subject to aerodynamic considerations.
Reusing the design or scaled prototype for a next generation manned craft?

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geedee77
I can't remember where I read it (it may have been Wikipedia) but the shape
X-37 was based on the shuttle which is why it's the current craft that's being
developed by the military. There was another craft prototyped but it was too
costly and time consuming to test out a completely new shape.

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ck2
So while the shuttle program was canceled with hundreds of flights left on
their frame lifetimes, the military gets practically unlimited funding for
their toys and wargames.

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astrodust
The shuttle was always a huge waste of money. Reusable vehicles can't compete
with simpler single-use type vehicles.

The Russians built their own reusable shuttle, then scrapped it early on. It's
hard to compete with the Soyuz because it's simple and it works.

