Re:US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward o...
by simonh on Wednesday June 29, 2022 @04:54AM
(#31917827)
It's smart tech, sure, but nothing that hadn't already been done. It's basically a scaled down space shuttle, and the Buran shuttle had autonomous landing capability decades ago.
The main capability this provides is significant on-orbit manoeuvre. It's easy to see how that could be useful for military missions, over-flying specific sites and sidling up alongside interesting Russian or Chinese spy sats, but less useful for civilian applications.
The main capability this provides is significant on-orbit manoeuvre. It's easy to see how that could be useful for military missions, over-flying specific sites and sidling up alongside interesting Russian or Chinese spy sats, but less useful for civilian applications.