{"id":16303,"date":"2015-05-27T19:16:43","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T11:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/x-37b-spaceplanes-orbit-discovered\/"},"modified":"2015-05-27T19:16:43","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T11:16:43","slug":"x-37b-spaceplanes-orbit-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/x-37b-spaceplanes-orbit-discovered\/","title":{"rendered":"X-37B spaceplane\u2019s orbit discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6607\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6607\" style=\"width: 940px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/x37bart.jpg\" alt=\"Credit: Boeing\" width=\"940\" height=\"531\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/x37bart.jpg 940w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/x37bart-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/x37bart-768x434.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6607\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Boeing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Hobbyists who keep track of the skies with remarkable precision have found the U.S. Air Force\u2019s mini space shuttle in its no-longer-secret orbit around the Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The X-37B craft, making the program\u2019s fourth mission into space, was launched May 20 from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n<p>The ascent entered a news blackout about five minutes after liftoff, as the Centaur upper stage began its burn to put the spaceplane into low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until later that officials confirmed the launch had gone smoothly for the Orbital Test Vehicle mission No. 4. It is believed the Centaur deployed X-37B about 19 minutes into flight.<\/p>\n<p>Observers this week spotted the craft flying overhead in a 194 by 202 mile orbit (312 X 325 km), tilted 38 degrees relative to the equator.<\/p>\n<p>That perch is lower than previous X-37B missions and the inclination is lower, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOTV 4 entered the lowest initial altitude of the program,\u201d said Ted Molczan, a respected satellite observing hobbyist. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ground track nearly repeats every 2 days. Frequently repeating ground tracks have been a common feature of the program. This could be an indication of a surveillance mission, or it may offer some operational advantage I have yet to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although the Air Force revealed two experiments to be conducted on this fourth mission \u2014 an electric propulsion thruster test and materials exposure in the space environment \u2014 much was classified about the flight, including the orbit, mission duration and even which of the two X-37B spaceplanes is making the trip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe X-37B testbed platform is unique because we can tailor to specific user needs and return experiments back to post-flight inspection,\u201d said Ken Torok, Boeing\u2019s director of experimental systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReliability, reusability and responsiveness of the X-37B will fundamentally change how we perform future space missions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OTV 1 (first flight of Vehicle No. 1)<br \/>\nLaunch: April 22, 2010<br \/>\nLanding: Dec. 3 2010<br \/>\nDuration: 224 days<\/p>\n<p>OTV 2 (first flight of Vehicle No. 2)<br \/>\nLaunch: March 5, 2011<br \/>\nLanding: June 16, 2012<br \/>\nDuration: 469 days<\/p>\n<p>OTV 3 (second flight of Vehicle No. 1)<br \/>\nLaunch: Dec. 11, 2012<br \/>\nLanding: Oct. 17, 2014<br \/>\nDuration: 675 days<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese missions have proven the reliability and flexibility of the system to support a variety of experiments,\u201d Torok said.<\/p>\n<p>See our earlier launch coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Boeing CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Hobbyists who keep track of the skies with remarkable precision have found the U.S. Air Force\u2019s mini space shuttle in its no-longer-secret orbit around the Earth. The X-37B craft, making the program\u2019s fourth mission into space, was launched May 20 from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 [&hellip;]<\/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":[3320,437,724,3321,670,3713,750,1011],"class_list":["post-16303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-afspc-5","tag-air-force","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-054","tag-boeing","tag-spaceplane","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-x-37b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303"}],"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=16303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}