The US Military New Space Plane

They say that we are no longer in space. I found it hard to believe that the United States would depend on the Russians to take us to and from the space station without a back up plan. When the Space Shuttle program ended, the media told us that we had no way to get back into space without the help of the Russians. But we do have a Black Box Program to cover just such situations as this!

The Boeing X-37 (also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle) is an American unmanned vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing (VTHL) spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United States Air Force for orbital spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies. It is a reusable robotic spaceplane that is a 120% scaled derivative of the X-40A.

The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, then was transferred to the U.S. Department of Defense in 2004. It had its first flight as a drop test on April 7, 2006, at Edwards Air Force Base. The spaceplane's first orbital mission, USA-212 was launched on April 22, 2010 using an Atlas V rocket. Its return to Earth on December 3, 2010 was the first test of the vehicle's heat shield and hypersonic aerodynamic handling. A second X-37B was launched on March 5, 2011 with the mission designation USA-226.

In 1999, NASA selected Boeing Integrated Defense Systems to design and develop the vehicle, built by the California branch of Boeing's Phantom Works. Over a four-year period NASA contributed $109 million, the US Air Force $16 million, and Boeing $67 million to the project. In late 2002 a new $301 million contract was awarded to Boeing in the framework of NASA's Space Launch Initiative.

The X-37 was transferred from NASA to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on September 13, 2004. The program has become a classified project, although it is not known whether DARPA will maintain this status for the project.

NASA's spaceflight program may be centered around the Crew Exploration Vehicle, while DARPA will promote the X-37 as part of the independent space policy that the US Department of Defense has pursued since the Challenger disaster.

The X-40A is essentially a winged lifting body with a V-tail. It is equipped with a tricycle landing gear and a GPS/INS precision navigation system. The full-scale SMV, designated X-40B, would have added a liquid-propellant rocket propulsion system, a reusable thermal protection system, a dorsal payload bay and other systems necessary for operations in space.

Not long after the first, and at that time only, flight of the X-40A, the USAF decided to give the X-40A to NASA for use as a scaled low-speed test bed for the X-37 program. Nothing has come forward on the planned X-40B SMV, and it is assumed that this part of the program has been terminated and absorbed by the X-37A.