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A comment on US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward orbital record. Parent comment

Re:US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward o... by dotancohen on Wednesday June 29, 2022 @11:02AM (#31921154)
That's nowhere near the ground path of a polar launch from either Vandenburg nor the Cape on the first few orbits, though.
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Re:US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward o... by dboreham on Wednesday June 29, 2022 @12:20PM (#31922283)
True, I was responding to your post "the only...nations...".
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Re:US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward o... by dotancohen on Thursday June 30, 2022 @02:36AM (#31929296)
Oh, I see, thanks.

Yes, most (maybe all) shuttle rollouts were less than the 10000 length of the Machrihanish runway, but that's really cutting it close. SLF Florida is 15000 feet. But I guess if the situation is so bad that the shuttle needs to come down outside the US, it's probably not going to be used again so why not mow the grass at the end of the runway.

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Re:US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward o... by dboreham on Friday July 01, 2022 @02:36PM (#31950806)
According to wikipedia Machrihanish was "certified" as an emergency shuttle landing site. Local rumor is that it was used for SR-72/Aurora, black project flights. Lots of conspiracy theories, e.g. https://www.theregister.com/2000/07/10/top_secret_us_plane_c...
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