The Air Force's second X-37B military spaceplane blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Image Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – An Atlas V rocket successfully launched the U.S. Air Force’s second X-37B military space plane on a classified mission at 5:46 p.m. EST today from Space Launch Complex 41.
The X-37B also known as the OTV, supports space experimentation, risk reduction, and concept of operations development for long duration and reusable space vehicle technologies. The first OTV mission was also successfully launched by a ULA Atlas V from Space Launch Complex-41, on Apr. 22, 2010. It later landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Dec. 3.
“Launch is a very demanding business and having what appears to be a successful launch is always welcome news,” said Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space Programs Richard McKinney, adding he is pleased with the vehicle’s initial status reports. “It is important to remember that this is an experimental vehicle; that this is just the second launch; and that we have just started what is a very systematic checkout of the system.”
Mr. McKinney explained the second X-37B flight will help Air Force scientists better evaluate and understand the vehicle’s performance characteristics and expand upon the tests from OTV-1.
One performance test, for example, will evaluate a change following the flight of OTV-1, which showed potential for greater flexibility in the landing parameters.
A low angle view of the Air Forces X-37B Spaceplane. Image Credit: USAF
“We look forward to testing enhancements to the landing profile,” said Lt. Col. Troy Giese, X-37B program manager for the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which leads the Department of Defense OTV program.
Colonel Giese added that program officials want to test landing capabilities in stronger wind conditions.
“The X-37B really is a remarkable scientific and aerospace achievement,” he said. “We’ll also be looking at the performance of its advanced thermal protection systems and tiles, solar power systems and environmental modeling – all important system capabilities for a space vehicle that we want to be able to bring back and then re-launch quickly.”
Power and environmental protections are also important to one of the most promising capabilities of the vehicle: its orbit duration, which is much longer than a manned mission like NASA’s space shuttle, Colonel Giese said.
Similar to OTV-1, OTV-2′s actual mission duration will depend on the vehicle achieving its test objectives, but he expects it to remain on orbit for approximately 270 days.
“We may extend the mission to enhance our understanding of the OTV capabilities,” Colonel Giese said, “especially since the performance data from the first flight suggest that the vehicle could have gone beyond the 270-day requirement.”
Air Force officials assert the X-37B program has the potential to make space experiments more affordable, which would allow future experiment designers to focus resources and dollars on technology and innovation rather than on basic services, layers of redundancy, or ground operations.
A Marshall Space Flight Center concept image showing the on-orbit functions for the reusable X-37 spaceplane. Image Credit: NASA/MSFC
“This program provides a test capability that was difficult to achieve through other means, the ability to examine how highly complex technologies will perform in space before they are made operational,” Mr. McKinney said, “But right now our focus is on the X-37B itself, and this second flight is important to our further understanding of its capabilities.”
Air Force officials anticipate multiple missions will be required to satisfy the X-37B program test objectives, but a third mission has not yet been scheduled.
The OTV is the United States’ newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft and is the first vehicle since NASA’s Shuttle Orbiter with the ability to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis.
“The ULA team is proud to have played a critical role in successfully launching both of these important missions of the Orbital Test Vehicle for the Air Force RCO,” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Mission Operations. “It took a tremendous amount of teamwork to successfully launch both vehicles in less than a year. I am confident that the information collected by the Rapid Capabilities Office from these missions will lead to even bigger and bolder missions in the future. Congratulations to the combined Air Force and ULA launch team and our many mission partners that made today’s successful launch possible.”
This mission was launched aboard an Atlas V 501 vehicle configuration, which includes a 5.4m diameter payload fairing. The booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine and the Centaur upper stage was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL-10A engine.
ULA’s next launch, currently scheduled for March 11, is a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) aboard a Delta IV rocket from Space Launch Complex-37.
