{"id":12264,"date":"2020-08-18T19:25:01","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T11:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/pentagon-plans-to-keep-x-37b-spaceplane-under-air-force-management\/"},"modified":"2020-08-18T19:25:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T11:25:01","slug":"pentagon-plans-to-keep-x-37b-spaceplane-under-air-force-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/pentagon-plans-to-keep-x-37b-spaceplane-under-air-force-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon plans to keep X-37B spaceplane under Air Force management"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The reusable X-37B spaceplane is prepared for encapsulation inside the payload fairing of an Atlas 5 rocket ahead of a launch scheduled for May 16. Credit: U.S. Space Force<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. military\u2019s X-37B spaceplane program will remain under Air Force management for the foreseeable future, and won\u2019t join other Pentagon space programs turned over to the Space Force after the establishment of the new service branch last year.<\/p>\n

The Air Force\u2019s two reusable winged X-37B spacecraft, built by Boeing, have launched on six classified missions, testing out new space hardware, deploying small satellites, and performing other clandestine duties on missions that have logged years in orbit several hundred miles above Earth.<\/p>\n

The X-37B program, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, is managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. The office is headquartered in Washington and \u201cexpedites development and fielding\u201d of military support and weapon systems, and also oversees projects on accelerated development timelines, according to a military fact sheet.<\/p>\n

Randy Walden, director and program executive officer for the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said Aug. 13 in a virtual forum hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that his office will remain in charge of the X-37B program.<\/p>\n

A Space Rapid Capabilities Office headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico was established in 2018 to replace the military\u2019s Operationally Responsive Space, or ORS, program. Most of Space RCO\u2019s efforts are classified.<\/p>\n

Walden said the Air Force RCO will retain the X-37B program, but added his office will \u201ccontinue the collaboration\u201d with Space RCO and the U.S. Space Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we plan on keeping that,\u201d Walden said, referring to the X-37B program. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interest in reusable space vehicles right now. We\u2019ve gained a lot of information in the decade we\u2019ve been operating that system, and I think it\u2019s provided unique and relevant insight into some of the newer technologies that would actually go to space and inform how they would build those systems. So we\u2019re going to continue doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Space Force was established in December 2019, and other military space programs \u2014 such as GPS satellites and military communications networks \u2014 have been moved from the Air Force to the new service branch, which is still part of the Department of the Air Force.<\/p>\n

Walden said the Space Force, Space RCO, and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland could provide payloads to fly on X-37B missions. The AFRL has flown payloads on previous X-37B flights, and the Naval Research Laboratory is flying a space-based solar power experiment on the X-37B spaceplane currently in orbit, which launched May 17 from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

The current X-37B mission is the sixth flight of the spaceplane since 2010, and it debuted a new service module on the rear of the spacecraft to provide additional capacity for payloads and experiments. The X-37B also has a payload bay in its fuselage with doors that open and close after launch and before re-entry and landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got what we call a service module up there, and the service module really is the thing that used to connect to the upper stage booster,\u201d Walden said. \u201cIt allows us to actually put a lot more experiments on there. So we\u2019re actually increasing the type of capability and experimentation that we can do on each launch. We\u2019ll continue that in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walden said his office has experience in managing and flying X-37B missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I think it would be unfair to transition it to somebody else and expect them to understand it overnight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Walden did not rule out the possibility that the Air Force could transition the X-37B program to the Space Force in the future.<\/p>\n

Before the launch of the sixth X-37B mission in May, the two Boeing-built spaceplanes had accumulated 2,865 days in orbit on five previous flights. The longest X-37B mission to date lasted 780 days \u2014 more than two years \u2014 stretching from September 2017 until October 2019.<\/p>\n

The unpiloted spacecraft launches inside a payload shroud on top of a conventional rocket, unfurls a power-generating solar array in orbit to generate electricity, and returns to Earth for a runway landing like NASA\u2019s retired space shuttle. The X-37B measures more than 29 feet (8.9 meters) long, about one-quarter the length of a space shuttle orbiter, and has a wing span of nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters).<\/p>\n

The X-37B program began under NASA management before transferring to DARPA in 2004, then to the Air Force in 2006.<\/p>\n

The National Aeronautic Associated announced last week it awarded the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy to the X-37B spaceplane.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderscoring the importance of space to the nation, the Collier Trophy celebrates the record-setting mission of the X-37B,\u201d said Barbara Barrett, Secretary of the Air Force, in a statement. \u201cMost Americans use space daily for navigation, information, and communication. Sophisticated and uncrewed, the X-37B advances reusable spaceplane technologies and operates experiments in space that are returned for further examination on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reusable X-37B spaceplane is prepared for encapsulation inside the payload fairing of an Atlas 5 rocket ahead of a launch scheduled for May 16. Credit: U.S. Space Force The U.S. military\u2019s X-37B spaceplane program will remain under Air Force management for the foreseeable future, and won\u2019t join other Pentagon space programs turned over to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[670,257,2113,2114,2115,2116,2117,2118],"class_list":["post-12264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-military-space","tag-otv","tag-otv-6","tag-randy-walden","tag-rapid-capabilities-office","tag-us-air-force","tag-us-space-force"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}