Ex-USAF Secretary reveals X-37B capability to drive America's adversaries 'nuts'

Former Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson offered a glimpse into the mission of an experimental spaceplane to an audience last week, revealing that the X-37B spaceplane can pull off manoeuvres in space that drives potential adversaries "nuts."

Wilson was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum when she revealed that the Space Shuttle-like X-37B "can do an orbit that looks like an egg and when it's close to the Earth, it's close enough to the atmosphere to turn where it is," cited by Military.com.

"Which means our adversaries don't know-and that happens on the far side of the Earth from our adversaries-where it's going to come up next. And we know that that drives them nuts. And I'm really glad about that," Wilson said.

Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), the X-37B was spotted earlier this month by an astronomer in the Netherlands, who captured photos of the robotic space plane in low Earth orbit.

"It is true that the X-37B flies lower than just about every other active satellite and low enough that atmospheric drag is definitely significant," added Brian Weeden, director of program planning and technical adviser for national and international space security for the Secure World Foundation, in an email. "So [Wilson's] statement about using that increased drag, plus its unusual shape, to alter its orbit is plausible."

He added that this disclosure on how the X-37B potentially operates may cause concerns, even among partners and allies, as it may create the impression that it's some type of weapons platform. The X-37B took off for its fifth mission on September 7, 2017.

While its payloads and most of its activities are classified, the Air Force said at the time that the mission would carry "the Air Force Research Laboratory Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader (ASETS-II) payload to test experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipe technologies in the long-duration space environment."

Source: RIA Novosti

Related Links
Military Space News
Military Space News at SpaceWar.com

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

'Let's see them aliens': 1.3 mn people vow to storm classified US base
Washington (AFP) July 16, 2019
For more than a century, scientists have scoured the known universe for signs of extraterrestrial life, an endeavor that has thus far proved fruitless - unless you believe the US government is hiding aliens at a remote base in Nevada. The number of people persuaded of this theory could be growing. As of Tuesday, more than 1.3 million people had signed up for a Facebook event called "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All Of Us" scheduled for the early hours of September 20, and a million more had ... read more