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The US Army’s X-37B space plane program will remain under the direction of the Air Force for the foreseeable future and will not join other Pentagon space programs transferred to the Space Force after the creation of the new branch of service last year.
The Air Force’s two reusable winged X-37B spacecraft, built by Boeing, launched six classified missions, testing new space hardware, deploying small satellites, and performing other clandestine tasks in missions that have recorded years in orbit several hundred kilometers above the Earth. .
The X-37B program, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, is managed by the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office. The office is headquartered in Washington and “accelerates the development and commissioning” of military support and weapons systems, and also oversees projects on accelerated development times, according to a military backgrounder.
Randy Walden, director and program manager of the Air Force’s rapid capabilities office, said on August 13 in a virtual forum hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that his office would remain in charge of the X-37B program. .
A space rapid capabilities office headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico was established in 2018 to replace the Space Operational Military Program, or ORS. Most of Space RCO’s efforts are classified.
Walden said the Air Force RCO would keep the X-37B program, but added that his office “will continue to work” with Space RCO and the US Space Force.
“For now, we plan to keep that,” said Walden, referring to the X-37B program. “Reusable space vehicles are currently generating a lot of interest. We’ve gotten a lot of information over the decade we’ve been operating this system, and I think it’s given us a unique and insightful look at some of the newer technologies that would actually go into space and explain how they would build. these systems. We will therefore continue to do so.
The Space Force was established in December 2019 and other military space programs – such as GPS satellites and military communications networks – were transferred from the Air Force to the new branch of services, which still does part of the Air Force Department.
Walden said the Space Force, Space RCO and the Air Force Research Lab in Kirtland could provide payloads to fly on X-37B missions. AFRL has flown payloads on previous X-37B flights, and the Naval Research Laboratory is conducting a solar-powered space experiment on the currently orbiting X-37B spacecraft, which was launched on May 17 at from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5. rocket.
The current X-37B mission is the spacecraft’s sixth flight since 2010, and it has launched a new service module at the rear of the spacecraft to provide additional capacity for payloads and experiments. The X-37B also has a cargo bay in its fuselage with doors that open and close after launch and before re-entry and landing.
“We have what we call a service module up there, and the service module is really what connected to the booster upstairs,” Walden said. “It allows us to do a lot more experiments on it. So we’re actually increasing the kind of capacity and experimentation that we can do with each launch. We will continue this in the future.
Walden said his office had experience managing and flying X-37B missions.
“Right now I think it would be unfair to move on to someone else and expect them to figure it out overnight,” he said.
Walden did not rule out the possibility that the Air Force may transition from the X-37B program to the Space Force in the future.
Before the launch of the sixth X-37B mission in May, the two Boeing-built space planes had accumulated 2,865 days in orbit on five previous flights. The longest X-37B mission to date spanned 780 days – over two years – from September 2017 to October 2019.
The unmanned spacecraft launches inside a payload shroud above a conventional rocket, deploys a power generation solar panel into orbit to generate electricity, and returns to Earth for a landing on runway as the retired NASA space shuttle. The X-37B is over 29 feet (8.9 meters) long, about a quarter the length of a space shuttle orbiter, and has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters).
The X-37B program began under NASA leadership before being transferred to DARPA in 2004 and then to the Air Force in 2006.
The National Aeronautic Associated announced last week that it had awarded the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy to the X-37B spacecraft.
“Emphasizing the importance of space to the nation, the Collier Trophy celebrates the record-breaking mission of the X-37B,” said Barbara Barrett, Secretary of the Air Force, in a statement. “Most Americans use space daily for navigation, information, and communication. Sophisticated and unequipped, the X-37B advances reusable spaceplane technologies and performs experiments in space that are returned for further examination to Earth.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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