It's Baaack! XB-37B Finally Lands 123
ColdWetDog writes "The US Air Force / DARPA 'baby shuttle,' the Boeing-built XB-37B has just landed after 469 days in orbit. No official explanation of why controllers kept the mission going past the original duration of 270 days other than 'because we could.' I, for one, welcome our long duration, unmanned orbital overlords."
Coincidental timing (Score:2, Interesting)
Same day the Chinese launch their most ambitious manned mission thusfar? Mmmkay.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:man in space? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The future of spaceflight is robotic (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm glad to hear I'm well known. Sorry friend, but if you're behaving like a space nutter, I call it like I see it. Every time this type of article pops up, a bunch of naive idealists crowd in to tell us how stupid it is that we're not spending multiples of our GNP to send a handful of people to another planet to establish a colony, or mine iron ore from an asteroid, or some other foolishness that they claim (without justification) is "absolutely indispensable" to humanity's future.
They take great joy in shouting down anybody who puts forth the rational (and quite likely) point that "manned space travel" is a dream, and barring a fundamental revolution in physics and our understanding of the universe, will always remain a dream. You want to explore the stars? Start launching robotic probes, because that's the only way any of us will ever learn what it's like in another solar system. And once those probes are launched, turn your vast intellect towards solving actual problems in the here and now on earth, because this is the only place we're gonna get.
Small reusable manned craft (Score:4, Interesting)
Although it's been proposed many times, nobody has ever put up a small, reusable manned spacecraft. The USAF had the DynaSoar program in the 1960s, but that was cancelled. Virgin Galactic is making noises about a small orbital spaceplane. Nothing like that has ever flown, but there's no fundamental obstacle.
The near future of earth orbit space may be Space-X's Falcon Heavy for freight, something from Virgin Galactic for humans, and robotic vehicles for military tasks.
Kerbal Space Program (Score:0, Interesting)
I've been addicted to building and launching my own multi-stage rockets into orbit (and beyond) in a Minecraft-esque (at least in business model) vidja game called Kerbal Space Program. They have an older version on their site that you can download for free so if you're interested Google it.
Re:An Explanation (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, and drone missions over Iran continued unabated after the RQ-160 loss, why, then? Could it be that Iran didn't "spoof" anything, and it just made for a good propaganda win?
(Hint: no, we didn't "quick patch" the "problem" — the aircraft simply malfunctioned and crashed in Iran. And you're buying Iranian propaganda hook, line, and sinker. Congratulations.)