U.S. Air Force Launches Secret Flying Twinkie

[bananas]

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/space-flight/us-air-force-launches-secret-flying-twinkie

U.S. Air Force Launches Secret Flying Twinkie
Military's new space plane tests unnamed powers

BY James Oberg // April 2010

The liftoff of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral this month will mark one of the most secretive U.S. Air Force spaceflights in decades. Guessing the nature of the secret has become a sport among aficionados.

"This is one odd bird," military space historian Dwayne Day told IEEE Spectrum. "They're spending an awful lot of money for a test program that seems to have no real end user."

The 6000-kilogram, 8-meter X-37B OTV-1 is often called a flying Twinkie because of its stubby-winged shape. It was built in the Boeing Phantom Works high-security facility in Seal Beach, Calif. In the flight test, the craft is supposed to orbit Earth for several weeks, maneuver in orbit, and glide its way to a landing strip at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California.

The smart money is betting that the flight will put to the test systems that enable satellites to protect themselves from enemy attack. The most important trick in such self-protection is determining whether you are under attack at all. A clever enemy will want the attack to seem to be a mere accident. That way he'd leave no return address.

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Probably the best insight into the project's purpose will come after launch, as amateur (but well-equipped) satellite watchers around the world attempt to follow its orbital flight path and course changes. (You can follow their efforts at http://satobs.org.)

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[BeFree]

1. well

How long before we need to have an orbiting garbage truck?