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Ralf Vandebergh, an astronomer and renowned satellite expert from Nijswiller (Limburg, the Netherlands) spent months searching heaven for one of the sacred secrets of the sky, the secret Air Force Boeing X-37B orbital test vehicle the United States. In May 2019, he finally succeeded.
Remarkably, on June 30 and July 2, 2019, Vandebergh finally captured a few rare photos of the secret military spacecraft. Space journalist for fifty years and author of the new book "Moon Rush: The New Race in Space", Leonard David explained the story of the Vandebergh observation and photos on Saturday 6 July 2019 on LiveScience.com. The photos are now republished and shared around the world.
Journalist Leonard David quoted astronomer Ralf Vandebergh in his article on LiveScience.com: "When I tried to watch him again [in] Vandebergh then told Leonard David in his article, "It turned out he had headed for another orbit. Through the network of amateur satellite observers, it was quickly found in orbit and I was able to take pictures on June 30 and July 2. "
The Air Force X-37B started as a test project with NASA in 1999, but was acquired by the US Department of Defense in 2004. Most sources mention two X-37B spacecraft operational and only one X-37A. The fact that there are only three of them, that their missions and roles are classified and that they operate in space makes them incredibly difficult to take pictures, especially when An active mission like in Vandebergh.
Even more remarkable, according to the photographic analysis of Vandebergh, he might have captured the X-37B with the door of the cargo compartment open to perform a type of experiment or of any kind. surgery.
Vandebergh told reporters: "It's really a small object, even just 300 kilometers [186 miles] altitude, so do not expect the level of detail of the actual Space Shuttle's ground imagery. We can recognize a little nose, payload bay and tail of this mini-shuttle, with even a smaller detail sign. "
Vandebergh used a 10-inch F / 4.8-inch Newtonian telescope equipped with a single CMOS camera Astrolumina ALccd 5L-11 to capture his photos. He followed his elusive career in the sky by hand with the help of a small 6 × 30 telescope to align his telescope on the photos.
USAF official photo of X-37B (left) and astronomer Ralf Vandebergh (right).
(USAF and Ralf Vandebergh)
Little is known about the current role of both X-37Bs and the simple X-37A. It is highly likely that the X-37Bs will be used for "operational test" purposes with the US Air Force, while the X-37A would remain a combination of the Agency's advanced research projects for the defense (DARPA) and NASA with an equally secretive role.
While most public domain information classifies the X-37B and X-37A as "test" vehicles, the X-37B performed space flights of unusually long duration for testing purposes. It should be noted that the current X-37B mission on the Vandebergh photos is called "Mission OTV-5". This mission began 670 days ago, on September 7, 2017, when it was launched into orbit on the SpaceX Falcon 9 orbiting spacecraft, which had been launched since NASA's installation at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
While we know little about the current mission of this current X-37B flight, author Leonard David can give some hints in his report for LiveScience.com where he wrote:
"X-37B missions are conducted under the auspices of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and mission control for OTV flights is provided by the 3rd Space Experiment Squadron from Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, this squadron oversees the operations of the X-37B and is labeled as the first organization of the Air Force Space Command for demonstrations, scouts and experimentation tests based in the space, gathering information on objects located above the Earth and carrying out other information gathering tasks. "
This article originally appeared in The Aviationist. Follow @theaviationist on Twitter.
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