Falcon 9 Set to Launch X-37B Next Week
Static fire test complete—targeting Falcon 9 launch of OTV-5 from Pad 39A at @NASAKennedy on Thursday, September 7.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 31, 2017
This will be the first time Falcon 9 will launch the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane.
10 responses to “Falcon 9 Set to Launch X-37B Next Week”
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Payload and (main) rocket both recovered.Nice.
The military space plane has just come one step closer, now they just need to find a way to reuse the second stage.
Speaking of–I bet they don’t show any footage of that second stage firing–it might give a clue as to the secret space-plane’s orbit.
Something I was thinking of–there is the old fighter-jock saying that if you run out of energy–you run out of options. (Never try to out-turn a MiG–and Mig’s shouldn’t try to out-turn Phantons, etc)
Falcon has a bit more umph than Atlas. I seem to remember the Soviets were scared of a certain side manuver they thought a shuttle would do.
I wonder if they might try this here.
If they do show the second stage in flight–that would seem to demand one so to throw off any trackers.
I don’t understand. They haven’t launched together yet.
Cheers
I think X-37B is the inspiration of future F9 re-usable second stage…
Are you perhaps thinking of BFS, i.e. ITS second stage. Still not a particularly accurate comparison. X37 is a lifting body “spaceplane” that uses a horizontal landing. Whereas BFS more resembles F9 first stage modified to have a “belly” heatshield to enable orbital re-entry, following by a vertical descent to the ground.
Wow, that’s pretty exciting. Competition for the win!
Enrique. This is a rubbish comment. Think about it. The X-37B has no commonalities at all with the Falcon 2nd stage.
Cheers
Its interesting. Of the four proposed OSP designs from the early 2000’s, three of them are either flying or moving forward in some form. The X-37B resembles (surprise) the winged design Boeing proposed. Of course their CCP entry, the CST-100 is based on their capsule design and the Dream Chaser resembles the lifting body that was proposed.
It makes you wonder where we would be today if NASA had move forward with the OSP after the Columbia Accident instead of replacing it with Dr. Mike Griffin’s Constellation vehicles.
Interesting point, Thomas.
That dredged up some old memories from the post X-33/VentureStar time when my interest had devolved into “I’ll believe it when I see it” mode.
Got me reading a bit too, which was fun. Here’s an interesting step back in time: https://spaceflightnow.com/…
Anyway, what was the 4th design and whatever became of it, do you know?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
My memory is too hazy and a quick look didn’t turn up much…