Menu
![](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125652357/734236002.jpg)
Mar 22, 2016 The X-37 is an Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) that’s not only an unmanned spacecraft, but it’s also reusable. It launched into space riding on the back of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
The Pentagon’s top research arm is moving ahead with a project to develop an experimental, reusable space plane. Military hopes the new design will help reduce the costs of launching satellites into space and dependency on foreign suppliers for space missions.On May 24, 2017, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced it was partnering to build the prototype for its unmanned XS-1 space plane program. The Illinois-headquartered firm won the contract with a design it calls Phantom Express. DARPA and Boeing plan 'to build and fly the first of an entirely new class of hypersonic aircraft that would bolster national security by providing short-notice, low-cost access to space,' the military research and development organization. 'The program aims to achieve a capability well out of reach today – launches to low Earth orbit in days, as compared to the months or years of preparation currently needed to get a single satellite on orbit.' The primary requirement for the XS-1 technology demonstrator is the ability to loft a 3,000 pound expendable payload into low earth orbit, an altitude of anywhere between 99 and 1,200 miles, at a cost of no more than $5 million per launch.
According to DARPA, this is roughly 10 times less than what the U.S. Military spends on similar space missions. More importantly, the Pentagon wants “aircraft-like” performance, with the ability to conduct at least 10 flights in as many days. There is significantly more time involved when planning and preparing to launch a traditional rocket. An animated artist’s concept of the cycle of operation has the XS-1 taking off vertically, without the need for a large booster rocket, but landing like a conventional airplane, much like NASA’s now retired Space Shuttle. This would make it significantly more capable than the Pentagon’s experimental mini-space shuttle, which launches on top of a conventional rocket. It’s worth noting, however, that this earlier spacecraft is another product of Boeing’s Phantom Works advanced projects office.'
The XS-1 would be neither a traditional airplane nor a conventional launch vehicle but rather a combination of the two, with the goal of lowering launch costs by a factor of ten and replacing today’s frustratingly long wait time with launch on demand,' Jess Sponable, the XS-1 program manager said in a statement. 'We’re very pleased with Boeing’s progress on the XS-1 through Phase 1 of the program and look forward to continuing our close collaboration in this newly funded progression to Phases 2 and 3 – fabrication and flight.' To achieve the project’s goals, Boeing intends to use the Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 as the main propulsion source for the Phantom Express.
This is a liquid-oxygen and liquid hydrogen fueled motor based on the Space Shuttle’s main engine. A secondary booster would help propel the craft into space. This additional rocket will be expendable and house the payload. If all goes to plan, upon reaching the proper position in low earth orbit, the assembly will detach and deploy the satellite.In theory, this launch concept should keep costs down by reducing the total number of components necessary for the craft and required for each mission. By comparison, the Space Shuttle required two external boosters to get it up to speed. These were expensive and complex enough to make it worthwhile to recover them after launch.
On top of this hybrid boost engine/payload container, DARPA and Boeing plan to make use of advanced, lightweight composite materials that will hopefully make the craft easier to shoot into space. The XS-1 design will leverage automated flight system from the (ALASA) program, which involved using the momentum of a manned aircraft to give an extra boost to help loft a space craft out of the atmosphere. In the ALASA concept, when the carrier plane reached a certain altitude, it would release the launch vehicle, which would use its own booster motors to propel it the rest of the way into space. The Russians and Chinese have experimented with similar concepts and it may help explain China's interest in getting the massive Antonov An-225 Mriya.It is very likely that lessons learned from the unmanned, autonomous X-37B – which has been operating for years with of its actual mission – have gone into the Phantom Express, too.
And there might be an in the works at the famous Area 51 test site. In addition to refining the design and actually building the prototype, the XS-1 program’s Phase 2 will involve ground engine tests. Boeing will have to fire the Phantom Express’ motors 10 times in 10 days to validate its basic ability to meet that requirement. DARPA expects this portion of the project to wrap up in 2019.Phase 3 will consist of between 12 and 15 actual flight tests. This will include test missions within the Earth’s atmosphere, with and without payloads and up to speeds of Mach 5, followed by full Mach 10 demonstration flights with a “demonstration payload” somewhere between 900 and 3,000 pounds.
DARPA has already broadly scheduled these experiments for 2020.If the Phantom Express performs well, it could potentially be revolutionary. As of 2017, the U.S. Military was still relying on increasingly expensive, but entirely expandable rockets that require massive dedicated infrastructure to launch. And then there’s the matter of the United Launch Alliance’s, one of the main launch vehicles, which just so happens to use Russian-made RD-180 rocket motors. This has become increasingly politically problematic in the face of the Kremlin’s revanchist foreign policies, including active military support for armed separatist groups in Eastern Ukraine and backing the brutal dictatorship of Bashar Al Assad in Syria.Even before Russia seized control of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, the Air Force was already looking at risk mitigation strategies in case these engines suddenly became unavailable. As a result of subsequent sanctions against Russian officials and companies, the U.S.
Government has after 2022, which will ultimately lead to the use of a different engine, making this particular issue less significant. The Pentagon is interested in reducing the cost of these more conventional missions with reusable booster motors. Private companies and already have such designs in development. However, these traditional missions would still require significant lead time, potentially delaying the Pentagon from deploying critical capabilities or replacing them if something happens. If it works as intended, the XS-1 could rapidly deploy a satellite or even multiple miniature satellites with relative ease. And this may become increasingly important in the near future.' Although many improvements have been incorporated over the decades, launch systems today have grown increasingly expensive and must be procured years in advance of launch, impacting both the affordability of launching national security payloads as well as the cost and complexity of the payloads themselves,' DARPA explains in its.
'In an era of declining budgets and proliferating foreign threats to U.S. Air and space assets, routine, affordable and responsive access to space is essential to enabling new military space capabilities and rapid reconstitution of space systems during crisis.' The notion of an enemy taking out satellites in preparation for a larger attack might sound like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster or a videogame, but for the Pentagon it’s becoming an increasingly real concern. Military were to lose its GPS coverage for even a brief time, it could hamper troops ability to operate or drop precision bombs on target. Knocking out early warning satellites could blind American forces to incoming attacks. The War Zone's own Tyler Rogoway has kept a close eye on these developments and in December 2016. For years, anything but kinetic anti-satellite weaponry remained on the dark fringes of the defense world.
Now these concepts and capabilities are emerging into the mainstream. These range from the mysterious X-37B miniature space shuttle, to DARPA led initiatives aimed at servicing other satellites in space or using space junk to create cheap communications satellites. Any of these could be used to monitor, jam, or even destroy enemy satellites without creating terrible debris fields that will limit future access to space. Other highly classified space technologies also likely exist. In December 2016, Russia conducted the fifth test of its.
Nearly a decade earlier, China conducted. There is a growing, which could perform peaceful functions like repair other man-made objects in space or simply attack them, as well. Between 2013 and 2015, Russia that seemed to, able to make dramatic movements and effectively follow other satellites. They went dormant for a period, but appeared to “” in April 2017.U.S. Military officials are finding themselves struggling just to come up with what a war looks like in space to begin with, especially when it might involve top secret orbiting objects. 'It’s really difficult to go ahead and justify how you might attack somebody’s homeland if they’ve taken out a satellite that you don’t even admit exists,' Douglas Loverro, then deputy assistant secretary of Defense for space policy, said.
'Probably people are going to die on the ground where nobody’s going to die in space.' 'Is jamming an attack? Is a laser an attack? Does it have to be a kinetic hit on a satellite to be an attack?” Loverro continued. “That is not even settled in international law and probably won’t be for a long time.' Whatever the final legal framework is, with a fleet of XS-1s, the Pentagon would be able to replace any lost spacecraft quickly. And there’s always the possibility the U.S.
Military could modify Phantom Express to go on the offensive itself.Contact the author: [email protected].
X-37 | |
---|---|
The OTV-1 X-37B in April 2010, inside its payload fairing before launch | |
Role | Uncrewed spaceplane |
National origin | United States |
Manufacturer | Boeing Defense, Space & Security |
First flight | 7 April 2006 (first drop test) |
Introduction | 22 April 2010 (first spaceflight) |
Status | |
Primary user |
|
Number built | |
Developed from | Boeing X-40 |
The Boeing X-37 is an unpiloted demonstration spaceplane that is intended to test future spaceflight technologies while in orbit and during atmospheric reentry. It is a reusable robotic spacecraft based on the smaller X-40. The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, then was transferred to the US Department of Defense in 2004. The X-37 had its first flight as a drop test in April 2006 at Edwards AFB. The spacecraft was launched in April 2010 to begin a United States Air Force mission.[4]
History[change | change source]
In 1999, NASA chose Boeing to design the vehicle. The vehicle was built at the California branch of Boeing's Phantom Works. At the end of 2002, a new $300 million contract was awarded to Boeing in the framework of NASA’s Space Launch Initiative.[5]
The X-37 was transferred from NASA to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in September, 2004.[6] The program has become a secretive, though it is not known whether DARPA will maintain this status for the project.
In June 2005, the X-37 completed a captive-carry flight underneath the White Knight at Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California.[7] Through the second half of 2005, the X-37 underwent structural upgrades including reinforcement of the nose wheel supports. Further captive-carry flight tests and the first drop test were expected mid-February 2006.
March 2006 was scheduled for the X-37's first free flight but a snow storm covered the area, dropping snow on the Mojave.[8] The next flight attempt in March was canceled due to high winds.[8] In late March the X-37 flew, but a flaw prevented the free flight and the vehicle returned to the ground still docked with its White Knight carrier. In April 2006, the X-37 made its first free glide flight. During landing the vehicle ran off the runway.[9] After the vehicle was repaired, the program moved from Mojave to Air Force Plant 42 (KPMD) in Palmdale, California for the remainder of the flight test program. White Knight continued to be based at Mojave, but would ferry over to Plant 42 when flights were scheduled. Five additional flights were performed, at least one of which is believed to have been a free flight with a successful landing.[10]
In November 2006 the U.S. Air Force announced it would develop the X-37B from the NASA X-37A. The Air Force version is designated X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). The OTV program builds on industry and government investments by DARPA, NASA and the Air Force. The X-37B effort will be led by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and includes partnerships with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Boeing is the prime contractor for the OTV program.[11] The X-37B can remain in orbit for up to 270 days at a time.[12]
The Secretary of the Air Force states the OTV program will focus on 'risk reduction, experimentation, and operational concept development for reusable space vehicle technologies, in support of long term developmental space objectives.'[11]
The X-37B was originally scheduled for launch in the payload bay of the Space Shuttle, but following the Columbia accident, it was transferred to a Delta II. It was then transferred to the Atlas V following concerns over the spacecraft's aerodynamic properties during launch.[13]
Design[change | change source]
The main engines are fueled by JP-8kerosene, a military standard jet fuel. The maneuvering engines are fueled by hydrogen peroxide. This is wrong, the propellants were changed to hypergols long ago when it was a NASA program.
The X-37 was originally designed to be carried into orbit in the Space Shuttle cargo bay, but underwent redesign to launch on Atlas V and Falcon 9 after it was determined that a shuttle flight would be uneconomical.
This vehicle has the potential to become the United States' first operational military spaceplane, after the cancellation of Dyna-Soar in 1963. It is expected to operate in a velocity range of up to Mach 25 on reentry. Among the technologies to be demonstrated with the X-37 are improved thermal protection systems, avionics, the autonomous guidance system, and an advanced airframe. The on-board engine is the Rocketdyne AR-2/3, which is fueled by hydrogen peroxide and JP-8.
The X-37's aerodynamic design was derived from the Space Shuttle, hence the X-37 has a similar lift-to-drag ratio, and a lower cross range at high altitudes and mach numbers than the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle.[14]
The test vehicle, which was used as an atmospheric drop test glider, had no propulsion system. Instead of an operational vehicle's payload bay doors it had an enclosed and reinforced upper fuselage structure to allow it to be mated with a mothership. Most of the thermal protection tiles were 'fake', made of inexpensive foam rather than ceramic; a smaller number of the X-37's tiles were actual TPS tiles, and TPS blankets were used in areas where heating would not have been severe enough to require tiles.
Following their missions, X-37B spacecraft are to land on a runway at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California with Edwards Air Force Base as an alternate site.[15]
References[change | change source]
- ↑'X-37B lands this morning at Vandenberg AFB'. Santa Maria Times. 16 June 2012. Archived from the original on 26 June 2014.
- ↑Parsons, Dan (17 October 2014). 'US Air Force's shadowy space plane lands after 674 days in orbit'. Flight Global. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
- ↑Ray, Justin (7 May 2017). 'X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth and makes autopilot landing in Florida'. Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
- ↑'Star Wars 2010? U.S. military launch space plane on maiden voyage... but its mission is top secret', Daily Mail, 23 April 2010
- ↑'X-37 historical fact sheet'(PDF). NASA. September 2003. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ↑Berger, Brian. 'NASA Transfers X-37 Project to DARPA'. Space.com, 15 September 2004.
- ↑Leonard David (2005-06-23). 'White Knight carries X-37 aloft'. CNN.
- ↑ 8.08.1'Mojave web log entries on mojaveweblog.com (archive.org)'. Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2006-06-04. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ↑David, Leonard. 'X-37 Flies At Mojave But Encounters Landing Problems'. Space.com April 7, 2006.
- ↑Source of flights: mission markings posted on side of White Knight
- ↑ 11.011.1David, Leonard (November 17, 2006). 'U.S. Air Force Pushes For Orbital Test Vehicle'. Space.com. Retrieved 2006-11-17.
- ↑Clark, Stephen (2010). Air Force X-37B spaceplane arrives in Florida for launch. Spaceflight Now, February 25, 2010. Retrieved: March 3, 2010.
- ↑Krebs, Gunter. 'X-37B'. Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
- ↑'Air Force Bloggers Roundtable: Air Force set to launch first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle'. Department of Defense. April 20, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ↑Covault, Craig. 'USAF To Launch First Spaceplane Demonstrator'. Aviation Week and Space Technology, August 3, 2008.
Other websites[change | change source]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Boeing X-37. |
![Us air force secret space program Us air force secret space program](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/04/22/article-1268138-09416059000005DC-90_634x702.jpg)
- X-37 Fact Sheet and X-37 news on NASA.gov
- 'Air Force spaceplane is an odd bird with a twisted past'. Spaceflightnow.com
Retrieved from 'https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boeing_X-37&oldid=6788728'
![](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125652357/734236002.jpg)