Re:Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane passes 400 days ...
by vaadu on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @09:27AM
(#7177535)
Why is this vehicle still referenced as X-37? The mission appears to be reconnaissance and no longer aerospace vehicle research.
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Re:Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane passes 400 days ...
by nether on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @11:36AM
(#7178480)
Prefixes are mostly political in purpose and don't strictly describe the aircraft mission. The F-22 was the F/A-22 for a while, the F-117 was a bomber, the X-35 was a prototype for the F-35 and thus should have been the YF-35, and the SR-71 was designated RS-71 until a flubbed presidential announcement. Everyone knows what these aircraft really do though.
Re:Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane passes 400 days ...
by ChuckMcM on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @10:41AM
(#7178080)
Good question, perhaps giving it an actual name would reveal too much. General consensus seems to think its a 'deploy on demand' reconnaissance transport (basically a bunch of signal or optical gear in the payload that it can point at various places and then return). That would make it something like an MQ-37 or RQ-37.
Re:Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane passes 400 days ...
by 7952 on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @05:06PM
(#7180577)
The return ability also lets you collect data and store it on board for recovery later. Any sensor that can see through clouds could generate a colossal amount of data and there is never enough bandwidth!