The project has been in development for many years. Like the inflatable space station, it started out as a project for NASA, but has since been shuffled off to the United States Air Force, who has worked closely and quietly with Boeing on an experimental space craft. The craft, known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, will take to the skies April 19 from NASA’s Cape Canaveral launch pad, and will be the first unmanned space shuttle designed to introduce cargo into space, then return to earth.
In comparison to the massive Space Shuttle, the X-37B is more sports car than cargo hauler. Whereas the Space Shuttle can bring up tons of cargo and dozens of astronauts, the X-37B is capable of carrying small payloads or satellites, dropping them into orbit, and sliding back to earth. It’s launched from atop a disposable Atlas V rocket, making it significantly cheaper to fire and forget than the normal missions to space.
This is the X-37B’s only scheduled launch ever, so it remains to be seen if this is merely another stage in testing a prototype, or the end of an experiment that has turned out to be a failure. Knowing the US government, it’s probably both. Still, you’d think an unmanned satellite-launching spacecraft would prove useful in the long run.
Tags: unmanned spacecraft, unmanned space vehicle, robotic space vehicle, X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, Boeing, NASA, United States Air Force, military spacecraft
