![]() The Secure World Foundation, a space policy nonprofit organization, ranked the likelihood of all suggested X-37B mission scenarios. The public statements by the Air Force and an analysis of the spacecraft’s technical capabilities tells a different story: Air & Space Magazine revealed in 2015 that OTV-4, the fourth mission, involved tests of “an Air Force ion thruster and a NASA materials experiment”- not exactly James Bond stuff. There are even suggestions it could be used to snatch enemy satellites, bringing them home to study. As an Air Force platform, especially one that resembles an aircraft, it’s natural to think of it as some kind of exotic weapon system. ![]() The Air Force’s secrecy about the program has led to all kinds of speculation. The X-37 was carried by Scaled Composites White Knight launch aircraft with five captive flights and three free fall flights recorded. The X-37 was a full scale craft designed not to go into space but to further test unmanned, autonomous landing hardware and software. Rather than shelve the program, control shifted to the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.ĭARPA built the ALTV, which it called the X-37. Unfortunately in 2004, the civilian space agency decided an unmanned spaceplane "did not directly support NASA's goals" for exploration. NASA carried out seven X-40A flight tests before the test program ended.įollowing the X-40A, NASA planned to build two vehicles: the Approach and Landing Test Vehicle, or ALTV, and an Orbital Vehicle. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter to an altitude of 15,000 feet and released to glide to a landing at a nearby landing strip. The spaceplane was carried aloft by a U.S. The unmanned, unpowered X-40A was built to test autonomous guidance and navigation systems.
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