Saturday, January 07, 2012
Once China puts people aboard its new space station, they may have to watch what they say.
The United States’ super-secret space plane, the X-37B, is currently orbiting the earth on a classified mission. Even though the government won’t say what the X-37B is doing, many amateur space enthusiasts believe they know what the unmanned craft is up to.
According to Spaceflight magazine, the X-37B’s orbital path is nearly identical to that of China’s spacelab, Tiangong-1, which is currently unmanned but is expected to take on astronauts later this year.
“Space-to-space surveillance is a whole new ball game made possible by a finessed group of sensors and sensor suites, which we think the X-37B may be using to maintain a close watch on China’s nascent space station,” said Spaceflight editor Dr David Baker.
The X-37B looks a lot like the American space shuttle, only smaller (about 30 feet in length), and can glide back to earth once it completes its missions. It was built by Boeing’s Phantom Works group.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
X-37B Spaceplane 'Spying on China' (by Jonathan Amos, BBC News)
The Mysterious X-37B Space Plane: What is it Doing Up There? (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Fact Sheet (by Brian Weeden, Secure World Foundation) (pdf)
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