About six months ago I wrote a post on the American Department of Defense’s new space craft the X-37B. At the time it was quite the curiosity with it being shrouded in secrecy as to its actual purpose but there was ample information about the craft itself floating around the internet. Since then though there really hadn’t been anything to write home about as the only information we could get about the craft was its orbit. Everything else remained classified.
It’s that one piece of information however that’s sent the satellite watchers into a flurry. The X-37B’s orbit has been well known for quite some time and many amateur astronomers have been tracking its position since launch. 2 months ago however the diminutive cousin of the shuttle changed its orbit significantly, boosting itself a good 29KM higher above the earth’s surface. Amateur astronomers trying to catch a glimpse of the craft soon after the manoeuvres couldn’t find the craft and the hunt was on to find where it had gotten itself off to. It wasn’t too long before they found it however and the reclusive craft disappeared back into seclusion.
Then just a couple weeks ago they lost track of the craft yet again, signalling that it had made yet another in orbit adjustment. Two weeks of searching later and the craft was then spotted again around 54KM lower than it was previously. With the mission time over 180 days at this point the craft, according to specifications provided by the military, still has a good 90 days of in orbit time before it needs to return to the surface. Thus whilst the true nature of this change is not known you can probably bet that it’s not going to be coming home soon, and that brings up the possibility that the last few changes had another purpose in mind.
Whilst it was probably nothing more than just testing their orbit changing capabilities the conspiracy nut in me won’t be satisfied until I dig a little deeper into what they might be doing. We know that the X-37B has a decent payload bay on it but we have no idea whether it was loaded up or not. If it wasn’t that opens up the possibility of the DoD doing some in orbit satellite capture for reconnaissance or possibly bringing down to earth. The orbit of the X-37B is a strange one though with its inclination being 40 degrees, an orbit not shared by a lot of other craft. However there are a few as this site shows but unfortunately for my caged conspiracy nut they’re all at higher orbits and there’s nothing particularly interesting about any of them.
So much for that then.
In all seriousness the mission is more than likely all about testing the longevity of the components that have gone into making the X-37B and little else. The on orbit dancing this craft has been doing verifies that it’s capable of shifting itself around significantly and that the control systems of the craft are still functional after 6 months in high orbit. Had this been launched into a more populated area of space then I might contend that they were testing its ability to intercept other craft but right now it appears that the USA is just making sure their new toy works as it was designed to.
Future missions might be more exciting, however.
/me dons Tinfoil hat.
Maybe they are testing how long it takes for amateur astronomers to re-locate a ‘hiding’ satellite.
That’s so deliciously plausible! They might even be doing it with their own tracking stations to see how long it would take them to find a foreign owned satellite that’s changed trajectory. So many possibilities, the conspiracy is almost more fun than the X-37B itself 😀
[…] their orbit very much so when one does it often becomes a target of interest for stargazers. The X-37B is probably the most notable example of a satellite that was able to do this which was also a military craft although it’s orbit […]