Surveillance Suspected as Spacecraft’s Main Role

[IScreamSundays]

Source: NY Times

A team of amateur sky watchers has pierced the veil of secrecy surrounding the debut flight of the nation’s first robotic spaceplane, finding clues that suggest the military craft is engaged in the development of spy satellites rather than space weapons, which some experts have suspected but the Pentagon strongly denies.

Last month, the unmanned successor to the space shuttle blasted off from Florida on its debut mission but attracted little public notice because no one knew where it was going or what it was doing. The spaceship, known as the X-37B, was shrouded in operational secrecy, even as civilian specialists reported that it might go on mysterious errands for as long as nine months before zooming back to earth and touching down on a California runway.

In interviews and statements, Pentagon leaders strongly denied that the winged plane had anything to do with space weapons, even while conceding that its ultimate goal was to aid terrestrial war fighters with a variety of ancillary missions.

The secretive effort seeks “no offensive capabilities,” Gary E. Payton, under secretary of the Air Force for space programs, emphasized on Friday. “The program supports technology risk reduction, experimentation and operational concept development.”

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/science/space/23secret.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1274641355-bHYwmVdLvBknoYS7QEufgg

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Robb]

2. Big problem I see with this fellow's theory

...Ted Molczan, a team member in Toronto, said the military spacecraft was passing over the same region on the ground once every four days, a pattern he called “a common feature of U.S. imaging reconnaissance satellites.”...

...If imaging satellites are already doing this work, why the new space plane? Again, if you assume it's a need-based mission, there's no need for another space imaging platform.

I still like "directed energy test platform" or "ultrabroadband battlefield communication system" better.

[DJ13]

3. ..If imaging satellites are already doing this work, why the new space plane?

I bet most of those imaging satellites have been in use for many years, so it could be the robotic space plane is utilizing increased resolution imaging.

[formercia]

4. And since the images aren't transmitted

they can't be jammed. There also isn't a need for a fixed-target ground station or relay satellites,and the images could be delivered right to the consumer, shortening the delivery time.

Think of it as the space version of the U-2, with a lot longer mission capability.

[boppers]

lol dupe

(self delete)

[boppers]

7. +1

...and, like the U2, it isn't in a static orbit. Unlike the U2, it can't be "shot down". Yet.

[DRoseDARs]

12. Well, actually, the Chinese did successfully launch and test a sat killer in 2007.

This controlled craft could probably dodge an attack in orbit with enough lead time or just drop out of orbit, relaunch and avoid it altogether.

[boppers]

13. Sat killers work well if the target has a predictable path.

I think we're on the same page here, by having a bird that can (and probably will) change course makes it much harder to intercept.

[Heywood J]

8. Given that both the optics and actual imaging technology

could be changed on a relative moment's notice when something needs to be upgraded, this grows even more plausible.

[LawnKorn]

10. Spy satellites carry a fixed amount of fuel. Depletion of fuel results in destructive reentry

The robot space plane brings the expensive sensors and computers back to the ground for refurbishment, upgrade, and refueling.

Each trip can use different cryptographic transmission techniques to circumvent ground interception of data signals. It also prevents ground based capture and reprogramming of the satellite vehicle controls.

[Riftaxe]

6. probably because

satellites are sitting ducks, hence the need to replace them should any aggressor ever destroy the ones currently up there.

Just a theory though :P

[AlphaCentauri]

9. maybe an anti-satellite system n/t

[customerserviceguy]

5. Space-based 'spy' technology

makes treaties possible. Remember, "trust, but verify"? If not for spy satellites on both sides, the Russians and the US would have never made treaties to reduce weapons systems.

[paparush]

11. Molzcan has been tracking sats, predicting passes, deriving orbital elements

for years.

He knows his stuff.

[DRoseDARs]

14. Hell, anyone with decent math skills can do this too; this isn't the hard kind of rocket science.

If you passed your trigonometry and physics classes and have a telescope with a tracking mount (manual tracking is a bitch; my Meade ETX-90EC has an Autostar Computer Controller), you can do the exact same things. Tracking sats, predicting passes, and deriving orbital elements isn't mystical, it's just math. High schoolers have discovered asteroids before (much further away and much harder to spot) so they can do this too and so can you. I would try do it myself but I don't care enough to drive out-of-town and go somewhere within a 45-60min drive to do it (Reno sits in a fairly closed valley, so plenty of light pollution down here). Tracking fast-moving objects in orbit isn't fun for me even though I have a computer controller that can do it for me. I'd still need to plug in numbers, numbers I'd have to calculate and my math skills aren't quite there. I squeaked through both trig and physics.

[paparush]

15. I've been a hobbyist sat watcher for years.

I usually rely on Heavens-Above.com, though I have used prediction software and downloaded sets of TLE's from Molzcan and others.

[DRoseDARs]

16. Cheater. ;-) n/t

[paparush]

17. I was told there'd be no math! :-)

[happyslug]

18. More on the X-37B

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-212

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://politicaldog101.com/2010/04/12/the-x-37b-the-air-force-moves-into-the-post-space-shuttle-mode/&h=300&w=447&sz=24&tbnid=pYzJ0YBmxf0oxM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DX-37B&hl=en&usg=__EerQu7TNfih2leEd7ECTehRRi2A=&ei=lef6S7q3CcT48AaMg_H6Cg&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&ved=0CCoQ9QEwAw