THIS is what got Toby in all that trouble during the last years of the Bartlett administration?

Yes subby, a secret unmanned orbiter that few people know exists, few people know what it does, and that carries out very secret missions primarily for the Air Force with no public oversight is cool tag, just like the Space Shuttle.

Maybe if this were 1970 when military demands for this vehicle first farked over NASA in the shape of the Space Shuttle we got.

Secret?

That's cool and all, but it's not a cargo or passenger carrier.

I've seen coverage of this multiple times. Didn't it just return from nearly a year long mission in Aug or Sep?

RoyBatty: Yes subby, a secret unmanned orbiter that few people know exists, few people know what it does, and that carries out very secret missions primarily for the Air Force with no public oversight is cool tag, just like the Space Shuttle.

With a Democrat President, I'm surprised Fox News didn't claim that it'll be used to spy on God-fearing Americans.

FTA: "The Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office has a mission of expediting the development and fielding of select Department of Defense combat support and weapon systems by leveraging defense-wide technology development efforts and existing operational capabilities."

Leveraging for fielding. Got it.

Is it manned?

No.

Then it's scarcely a replacement, is it?

Oh my, what a suprise!

I, for one, am simply flabbergasted.

You mean peopled. Manned is so 1980's

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Toxic fuels.

Triumph:

Link

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

They're hazmat suits, and likely it uses hypergolic fuel, which is about as toxic as you can get without
being radioactive.

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Hydrazine rocket fuel.
VERY toxic.

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

One word: Hydrazine. Link

DjangoStonereaver: hypergolic fuel,

hypergolic nitrogen tetroxide / hydrazine version....what you said.

Yo. Just need a rid to the moon. I can find my own way from there.

You 'Mericans are sending robots to space already?

Pretty cool, I must say

The AF is going to continue their program which, if they are smart, would still include scientific exploration. That plus the private companies taking over people travel should cover what NASA was doing.

Still dont see a purpose for their existance past a couple of years from now (decades for some projects)....and thats just to wrap up what they started.

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Hydrozine thrusters.
Reliable, but nasty stuff until the systems purged.
Also, all that baking ceramic and plastic is probably not something you want to inhale.

dittybopper: Is it manned?

No.

Then it's scarcely a replacement, is it?

So build one big enough for three seats and some mail.

/really people, do I have to think of everything?

Unimpressed

Salmon: You 'Mericans are sending robots to space already?

Pretty cool, I must say

Sending them ain't hard.
Bringing em back, now that's a trick.

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Yes. It ia very radioactive. And full of mutant spiders. With wings.

RoyBatty: Yes subby, a secret unmanned orbiter that few people know exists, few people know what it does, and that carries out very secret missions primarily for the Air Force with no public oversight is cool tag, just like the Space Shuttle.

Maybe if this were 1970 when military demands for this vehicle first farked over NASA in the shape of the Space Shuttle we got.

It's unpiloted, but not unmanned. Everyone knows the true purpose is to deliver our tribute of orphans to the aliens known as "456", so they can be smoked. That was the agreement.

I see they 3D printed a few parts.

The Irresponsible Captain: [www.watchmojo.com image 450x253]

Yo. Just need a rid to the moon. I can find my own way from there.

Anything to get out of Ohio.

ChipNASA: DjangoStonereaver: hypergolic fuel,

hypergolic nitrogen tetroxide / hydrazine version....what you said.

WALL O TEXT if anyone gives a crap:

Hydrazine. Space craft use hydrazine in their orbital maneuvering engines, APUs, and other uses, and it's really really toxic. The F-16 uses it in the Emergency Power Unit that they have in case they lose their engine. If it fires off, the plane has to be parked 100 yards from any other aircraft, and has to sit for four hours before anyone can go near it (after the aircraft is secured). To service the EPU (4-5 hours after the hydrazine has dissipated), you have to wear gloves that go to the shoulder, a face shield, and a full body leather smock, and only two people are allowed to go near the aircraft to service it.

Hydrazine is also used as a low-power monopropellant for the maneuvering thrusters of spacecraft, and the Space Shuttle's auxiliary power units (APUs). In addition, monopropellant hydrazine-fueled rocket engines are often used in terminal descent of spacecraft. Such engines were used on the Viking program landers in the 1970s as well as the Phoenix lander and Curiosity rover which landed on Mars in May 2008 and August 2012, respectively.

In all hydrazine monopropellant engines, the hydrazine is passed by a catalyst such as iridium metal supported by high-surface-area alumina (aluminium oxide) or carbon nanofibers,[26] or more recently molybdenum nitride on alumina,[27] which causes it to decompose into ammonia, nitrogen gas, and hydrogen gas according to the following reactions:

Hydrazine is highly toxic and dangerously unstable, especially in the anhydrous form. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

Symptoms of acute (short-term) exposure to high levels of hydrazine may include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, dizziness, headache, nausea, pulmonary edema, seizures, coma in humans. Acute exposure can also damage the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system. The liquid is corrosive and may produce dermatitis from skin contact in humans and animals. Effects to the lungs, liver, spleen, and thyroid have been reported in animals chronically exposed to hydrazine via inhalation. Increased incidences of lung, nasal cavity, and liver tumors have been observed in rodents exposed to hydrazine.[33]

Limit tests for hydrazine in pharmaceuticals suggest that it should be in the low ppm range.[34] Hydrazine may also cause steatosis.[35] At least one human is known to have died, after 6 months of sublethal exposure to hydrazine hydrate.[36]

On February 21, 2008, the United States government destroyed the disabled spy satellite USA 193 with a sea-launched missile, reportedly due to the potential danger of a hydrazine release if it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere intact.[37]

Individuals may be exposed to hydrazine in the workplace or to small amounts in tobacco smoke. Symptoms of acute (short-term) exposure to high levels of hydrazine may include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, dizziness, headache, nausea, pulmonary edema, seizures, and coma in humans. Acute exposure can also damage the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system in humans. The liquid is corrosive and may produce dermatitis from skin contact in humans and animals. Effects to the lungs, liver, spleen, and thyroid have been reported in animals chronically (long-term) exposed to hydrazine via inhalation. Increased incidences of lung, nasal cavity, and liver tumors have been observed in rodents exposed to hydrazine. EPA has classified hydrazine as a Group B2, probable human carcinogen.

Oznog: Everyone knows the true purpose is to deliver our tribute of orphans to the aliens known as "456", so they can be smoked. That was the agreement.

give me doughnuts: Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Yes. It is very radioactive. And full of mutant spiders. With wings.

And flying monkeys.

Pardon my stupidity, but if it is unmaned, why the windows?

Maybe it is really made by microsoft.

davidphogan: That's cool and all, but it's not a cargo or passenger carrier.

From TFA:
"The X-37B vehicle and its cargo bay packed with a classified payload is set to make the third mission of the program."

People still living who have set foot on the moon:

Buzz Aldrin
Moon walk: July 21, 1969

Alan Bean
Moon walk: November 19, 1969

Edgar Mitchell
Moon walk: February 5, 1971

David Scott
Moon walk: July 31, 1971

John Young
Moon walk: April 21, 1972

Charles Duke
Moon walk: April 21, 1972
Youngest person to walk on moon, being 36 at the time.

Harrison Schmitt
Moon walk: December 11, 1972

Eugene Cernan
Moon walk: December 11, 1972
Last man to walk on moon, as co-astronaut Schmitt returned to the lunar module before him.

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits?

More important, why does the rear view of it look like a cross-eyed donkey sucking a pacifier?

Leave it to Fox to try to sensationalize this. There's nothing really secretive about it. The X-37 program has been around for 13 years now somewhat public launch from Edwards AFB in 2010.

Oznog: It's unpiloted, but not unmanned.

It is entirely unmanned. It's not big enough to hold a human -- at least not the B variant. Boeing is working on the C variant now. Big secret, hun?

Just saying...I saw this at a briefing here at work and since I found it on the internets, I'm assuming it's public information ..

 
Manned X-37 configurations.

I too am confused at why Subby seems to think that NASA's budget for the space program resembles the US Military budget in any way short of both being expressed in the US Dollar denomination.

And sure, when we start waging war in space, I won't have to lament the loss of our space program. For- thanks to the sacrosanct nature of our military spending budget- it truly will be good times for NASA.

*yawn*
Wake me when they start the Helium-3 mining expeditions to the Moon.

ChipNASA: Just saying...I saw this at a briefing here at work and since I found it on the internets, I'm assuming it's public information ..

[www.suasnews.com image 600x406] 
Manned X-37 configurations.

Those are future possible configurations of a scaled up craft. The X-37B is on 29 ft long, nine feet high, with a 14 wing span and a 11K lb total weight. It's about the size of a small two-man trainer aircraft. I can't see fitting six people into that.

astroturd: The AF is going to continue their program which, if they are smart, would still include scientific exploration. That plus the private companies taking over people travel should cover what NASA was doing.

Still dont see a purpose for their existance past a couple of years from now (decades for some projects)....and thats just to wrap up what they started.

You best be trollin'

So, why hasn't 0bama shut down the space program yet? Something else he hasn't got round to?

Does it come with its own theme song by Diane Warren?

Tharagleb: davidphogan: That's cool and all, but it's not a cargo or passenger carrier.

From TFA:
"The X-37B vehicle and its cargo bay packed with a classified payload is set to make the third mission of the program."

It can carry cargo, but not to the ISS afaik. I should have phrased that better.

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Duh, Aliens.

StoPPeRmobile: I see they 3D printed a few parts.

I think you missed some punctuation in that.. Perhaps some sort of apostrophe?

Hmm, I'd head down there and watch the launch, but there's only a 30% chance of favourable weather. A front is moving through here in Gainesville right now. Maybe I'll head down there tomorrow anyway, and just check out the IMAX movie or something if it doesn't launch, or go on a tour.

That's the new stupid looking Bounty Hunter PVP gear coming in tomorrow, around a D-5 Mantis in for repair.

Triumph: [a57.foxnews.com image 660x371]

Why are the technicians wearing space suits? Is that thing radioactive?

Hypergolic fuel very toxic

ChipNASA: ChipNASA: DjangoStonereaver: hypergolic fuel,

hypergolic nitrogen tetroxide / hydrazine version....what you said.

WALL O TEXT if anyone gives a crap:

[lots of nasty shiat]

.

So what is the upside then? Why use this stuff at all if all it's going to do is kill everyone around it and turn your children into seven eyed mutants? What is the benefit that makes people go "yeah, it's the most deadly thing we've ever invented, but..."

JackieRabbit: Leave it to Fox to try to sensationalize this. There's nothing really secretive about it. The X-37 program has been around for 13 years now somewhat public launch from Edwards AFB in 2010.

Oznog: It's unpiloted, but not unmanned.

It is entirely unmanned. It's not big enough to hold a human -- at least not the B variant. Boeing is working on the C variant now. Big secret, hun?

Not an adult, of course. Small orphans can pack really tight, though.

davidphogan: Tharagleb: davidphogan: That's cool and all, but it's not a cargo or passenger carrier.

From TFA:
"The X-37B vehicle and its cargo bay packed with a classified payload is set to make the third mission of the program."

It can carry cargo, but not to the ISS afaik. I should have phrased that better.

To your point though, it probably can't hold as a much cargo as the shuttle: