The X-37B will launch again on December 7th as a part of USSF-52 mission.
Only this time… the spaceplane is launching on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy???
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3583347/department-of-the-air-force-scheduled-to-launch-seventh-x-37b-mission/
What could be the reason for the need for such a heavy lunch vehicle?
thanks for the tweet ill cherish it forever
Are there pictures of this thing with Space Force markings yet
What does this thing even do? Answers range from new material/component testing to being able to sabotage Russian/chink satellites.
Mostly just long term automated experiments and materials testing
People who say it’s a nuke launcher or sat stealer are space noobs who know nothing.
Growing nonlinear crystals for muh lazers seems like a good bet
they do that on the ISS.
It's multirole. It can do all those things
Ever hear of international waters? Sometimes even that's too much jurisdiction for certain activities. Telescopes can see everything X-37B does but not whats going on inside the hull, that's all I'll say.
>Telescopes can see everything X-37B does but not whats going on inside the hull, that's all I'll say.
>whats going on inside the hull
Inside the hull is where our bravest Spaceforce recruits are fucking the hottest captive aliens you can imagine. The wars of the future will be fought not just with weapons, logistics, technology... but with hybrid vigor.
>Verification not required.
How do I sign up for this?
They all start out in sniper school
>ywn be trapped in the space minivan with zombie epstein
Both. It's a test bed for all sorts of future space shit, capture vehicles included.
It's a drone version of the space shuttle for all intents and purposes so it's really up to whatever mission parameters it's currently on.
>Test bed for various equipment/techniques/what have you
>Space spy shit
>Stuff that we probably can't even imagine
Testing.
What? You think most of the tech on the current gen fighters were all whipped up from scratch during the plane’s development? Maybe China does shit like that, since they just steal tech. But nations that actually R&D their own shit usually have to test stuff on an actual aircraft of some sort.
>material/component
it definitely does this.
>being able to sabotage Russian/chink satellites.
it may or may not carry sub-satellites for monitoring and disruption. there is a whole chessmatch going on up there all the time, with orbital positioning, maneuvers, blocking and tackles. It'll be fun when it's finally declassified.
Mostly testing but the schizo rumors I've read say it's a way to capture satellites and destroy them without throwing shit all over orbit (like the retarded Russians did when they shot down that satellite a few years ago)
disinfo shills are quick off the mark to tell you it's nothing you need to worry about
It's probably going up to spy on ukraine
You know there is an entire network of glownagger satellites already doing this right
>Using a heavy LV
Puts more mass into a given orbit, which means more potential mass for maneuver propellant for orbital maneuvers or otherwise a heavier payload.
Go play KSP
Neither, it's going into an orbit which requires much more dv to achieve
I still can't figure out how to travel to other planets in that game.
If you want to do it the retard way, just play around with maneuver nodes until you get an encounter. Understand that efficient trips will require launches at a given time of the year. Alternatively, you can go online and look up launch windows and ∆v requirements for whatever body you're trying to visit
why it has the flag of netherlands trailing behind it?
Those colors are coming out of the ship's Nethers, that's why.
bump I wanna legitimately learn more about this
c'mon boys give me some crazy schizo theories and more realistic ones too
Huh they didn't get the X-37C. Odd
elob grumf bad
That’s actually a very good question, I have no idea what it needs all that energy for. Can it get to GTO?
circumlunar or bust
>Can it get to GTO?
With a falcon heavy I would certainly hope so seeing as how that's generally reserved for interplanetary missions.
Negotiating with the Posadists, same thing the navy dolphins are for