Х-37 как прототип

[SpaceR]

Наверняка любительская оценка.

Ну посчитать то ХС реально имевших место орбитальных манёвров Молчан в состоянии.

Да, конечно. Я подразумевал, что занижена оценка в 84 м/с, требуемые для схода с орбиты.
В его оценке потерь ХС на межорбитальные маневры у меня особых сомнений нет.

Для получения приемлемой точности попадания к нужному аэродрому вдвое больше надо (имхо).

В смысле?  :shock:

Мало ведь просто нырнуть, нужно обеспечить гашение скорости в достаточной близости от планируемой точки посадки, соответственно и угол при входе в плотные слои (ниже 80 км) лучше иметь побольше 1 градуса.

Хотя можно и не считать - Союзы добираются с орбиты 180х250 км до орбиты станции почти 400х400 км, а Шаттлы - до орбиты Хаббла более 500х500 км. И оттуда ныряют обратно. Так что реальное изменение высоты более 300 км круговой орбиты.

Ну если прикинуть сход с орбиты высотой 300 км, то 84 м/с обеспечивают перигей на высоте ~20 км. Какой будет угол входа на 80 км сказать не берусь, но имхо не больше чем полградуса-градус.
У "Союза", насколько я помню, штатный тормозной импульс ~180 м/с и требуемый угол входа ~2,5-3 градуса. Про Шаттл не знаю, мож там и меньше, но всё равно более 100 м/с.

[Reader]

У "Союза", насколько я помню, штатный тормозной импульс ~180 м/с

Как правило ~115 м/с (для нынешней орбиты МКС)

[Старый]

У "Союза", насколько я помню, штатный тормозной импульс ~180 м/с и требуемый угол входа ~2,5-3 градуса.

В НК пишут "стандартные 115 м/с" с орбиты МКС. Для крылатого аппарата перигей 20 км не нужен, за счёт аэродинамики перевернувшись вверх ногами он может сам зарыться дальше в атмосферу. Это заодно растянет участок торможения и снизит перегрузки.

[Reader]

На соответствующем сайте помещены предварительные тлешки по результатам небольшого манёвра вниз, приблизительно на 1.2 км, итого: 284 X 287 км, 39.99 грд

Естественное торможение тут не при чём. Коррекция орбиты, предположительно, прошла 28 ноября в 06h UTC (с) Тэд Молчан, с подачи Greg Roberts и Alberto Rango

[Leroy]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1011/30x37landing/

Secret mini-shuttle due for landing as soon as Friday
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: November 30, 2010

 
The U.S. Air Force's clandestine X-37B space plane will glide back to Earth as soon as Friday and land on a concrete runway in California, the military announced Tuesday.

The X-37B spacecraft, also called the Orbital Test Vehicle, has been circling Earth since April 22 conducting classified tests and technology demonstrations while under the watchful eye of amateur observers on the ground.

The two-paragraph statement issued by the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base says the "exact landing date and time will depend on technical and weather considerations," but it is expected between Friday and Monday.

Preparations for the landing are underway at Vandenberg, the statement said.

Landing opportunities are available in the early morning Pacific time, according to multiple sources.

The winged spacecraft will fire its main engine to drop from orbit and descend through the atmosphere, braving searing hot temperatures over the Pacific Ocean under an insulating shield of blankets and ceramic tiles.

It will be the first attempted fully autonomous re-entry and runway landing from orbit in the history of the U.S. space program. The Soviet Union's Buran space shuttle accomplished the feat in a single automated test flight in 1988.

The X-37B final approach will be guided by a differential Global Positioning System precision landing system to feed navigation data into the craft's flight computer, giving the vehicle cues as it flies toward Vandenberg and lines up with the runway.

The space plane will arrive near the landing site and align with the runway for a steep final approach glide. In the last few seconds of the flight, the craft will flare its nose, deploy its tricycle landing gear and slap down on the runway.

The craft carries a destruct system to terminate the flight if it veers off course.

Vandenberg's runway is 15,000 feet long and stretches from northwest to southeast.

Edwards Air Force Base is an alternate landing site for the mission.

The Air Force did not provide any more details Tuesday, but a Pentagon spokesperson said more information could be released later this week.

Before Tuesday's terse press release, the Air Force was mum on progress of the X-37B mission since it entered a news blackout about 17 minutes after launch April 22.

Molczan, a respected skywatcher based in Canada, reports the space plane is now in a nearly circular orbit about 177 miles high with an inclination of 40 degrees.

A loosely-affiliated network of satellite observers has catalogued four major maneuvers by the X-37B since its launch. Once in August and October, then twice in November, observers lost track of the spacecraft only to rediscover the satellite in a different orbit.

Firings of the X-37B's powerful main engine, nearly the size of the space shuttle's primary orbit-changing thrusters, Oct. 6, Nov. 1 and Nov. 12 decreased the vehicle's altitude, a potential clue it was approaching landing.

The craft is about one-fourth the size of a space shuttle orbiter. It measures more than 29 feet long and 9.5 feet tall, with a wingspan of nearly 15 feet, according to an Air Force fact sheet.

Although its outside appearance resembles the shuttle, the X-37B features modernized systems but is significantly more limited than NASA's orbiter fleet. Its payload bay is about the size of a pickup truck bed.

Instead of running on fuel cells like the shuttle, the spacecraft unfurled a small solar array to produce electricity in orbit, making the X-37B capable of on-orbit stays lasting up to 270 days.

Other technologies the space plane was supposed to test include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, and conformal reusable insulations, the fact sheet said.

The mini-shuttle's payload bay can hold several hundred kilograms of payloads, but exactly what this mission is testing is secret.

Originally developed by NASA, then taken over by the Pentagon, the X-37 is a reusable space plane first developed as a testbed for launch vehicle technologies and a pathfinder for less expensive and more reliable access to low Earth orbit.

NASA transferred management of the program to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2004, then the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office took control in 2006.

The Air Force's vision for the X-37B is similar to NASA's.

Military leaders hope the system will prove to be a responsive and agile vehicle to meet up-to-the-moment demands from warfighters. Officials could plug an imaging device or other experiment into the X-37B's payload bay and launch it on an Atlas 5 or Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg.

But the viability of such a program hinges on the cost of readying an X-37B vehicle for another flight and launch availability.

This mission will continue after landing with a thorough check of how the space plane weathered more than 32 weeks in orbit. Engineers will then prepare the vehicle for a second mission.

Another X-37B spacecraft is under construction at Boeing Phantom Works for launch in the spring of 2011.

[sol]

Что ж, мягкой посадки, птичка!

[flateric]

на дневнике AFSC всплыло

http://www.facebook.com/AirForceSpaceCommand

Preparations for the first landing of the X-37B are underway at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Space professionals from the 30th Space Wing will monitor the de-orbit and landing of the Air Force's first X-37B, called the Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1). While the exact landing date and time will depend on technical and weather considerations, it is expected to occur between Friday, December 3, and Monday, December 6.

чуть позже добавили

Watch out... the X-37B is coming back down...!

[sol]

На Красную площадь посадить - как визит доброй воли в рамках программы "Партнерство ради мира"

Кстати, какой там пробег по полосе? Там, вроде, жесткая посадка таки довольно, с реактивным импульсом по поднятию носа в конце глиссады.

ЗЫ Чисто теоретически - возможно ли оборудовать в грузовом отсеке камеру с СЖО на пару витков и иллюминатором - милиардеров катать?

[Liss]

http://www.santamariatimes.com/news/local/military/vandenberg/article_7c46c692-fd1e-11df-9ed0-001cc4c03286.html

The military has released the typical notices to pilots and mariners, or NOTAMs, warning of an upcoming operation at the base.

The notice advises of a military operation between 10 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday.
      
Those advisories are issued when a launch is about to happen from Vandenberg. However, the next launch from the base is a missile-defense test tentatively scheduled for Dec. 14.

[Liss]

Предупреждений по аэропорту Лос-Анжелес выше крыши, и ни одно не соответствует в точности заявленному в газете времени (3 декабря 06:00-15:00 UTC). Есть, однако, необычное предупреждение по авиабазе Ванденберг:

M0482/10 - AERODROME OFFICIAL BUSINESS ONLY. 29 NOV 18:34 2010 UNTIL 03 DEC 01:00 2010. CREATED: 29 NOV 18:43 2010

На SeeSat-L обсуждается возможность посадки с витка, на котором объект прошел бы мимо Ванденберга в 05:56 PST = 13:56 UTC.

[Liss]

Ванденберг:

M0495/10 - AERODROME AND CLASS DELTA AIRSPACE CLOSED. 02 DEC 18:56 2010 UNTIL 03 DEC 01:00 2010. CREATED: 02 DEC 18:58 2010

M0494/10 - 10FT OBSTACLE ERECTED 3,010FT FROM THE END OF THE APPROACH OF RWY 30. 02 DEC 18:30 2010 UNTIL 01 FEB 01:00 2011. CREATED: 02 DEC 18:32 2010

M0493/10 - 10FT OBSTACLE ERECTED 500FT FROM RWY CENTERLINE SOUTH OF THE RWY, BETWEEN RWY30 DRM'S 12/11. 02 DEC 18:27 2010 UNTIL 01 FEB 01:00 2011. CREATED: 02 DEC 18:29 2010

M0487/10 - 4FT OBSTACLE ERECTED 75FT FROM THE EDGE OF THE RWY BETWEEN DRM'S 2/3 ON THE NORTH SIDE OF RWY 30. 30 NOV 01:20 2010 UNTIL 06 DEC 01:00 2010. CREATED: 30 NOV 01:24 2010

[kit105k]

Имхо, на Ванденберге эта резервация довольно-таки интересна, даже период окончания совпадает с заявленным в прессе!

M0489/10 - TAXIWAY DELTA BETWEEN PARKING APRON AND TWY ALPHA
CLOSED TO AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS. 01 DEC 17:42 2010 UNTIL 03 DEC 15:00 2010. CREATED: 01 DEC 17:45 2010

[kit105k]

X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle lands at Vandenberg AFB

Posted 12/3/2010   Updated 12/3/2010  Email story   Print story

 

30th Space Wing Public Affairs

12/3/2010 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.  -- The U.S. Air Force's first unmanned re-entry spacecraft landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:16 a.m. today.

The X-37B, named Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1), conducted on-orbit experiments for more than 220 days during its maiden voyage. It fired its orbital maneuver engine in low-earth orbit to perform an autonomous reentry before landing.

The X-37B is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (AFRCO), the X-37B program performs risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.

"Today's landing culminates a successful mission based on close teamwork between the 30th Space Wing, Boeing and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office," said Lt Col Troy Giese, X-37B program manager from the AFRCO. "We are very pleased that the program completed all the on-orbit objectives for the first mission."

OTV-1's de-orbit and landing mark the transition from the on-orbit demonstration phase to a refurbishment phase for the program.

The Air Force is preparing to launch the next X-37B, OTV-2, in Spring 2011 aboard an Atlas V booster.

[Leroy]

Интересно, будут ли кадры, или хотя бы фото?
Вторая в истории беспилотная посадка АКС!

[Liss]

Интересно, будут ли кадры, или хотя бы фото?
Вторая в истории беспилотная посадка АКС!

Ну если были съемки перед стартом, почему же не заснять посадку.

[Leroy]

Интересно, будут ли кадры, или хотя бы фото?

Ну если были съемки перед стартом, почему же не заснять посадку.

Кадры аппарата, бегущего по ВПП точно будут. А вот approach...  :?:

[Liss]

Кадры аппарата, бегущего по ВПП точно будут. А вот approach...  :?:

Он знал!

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=21122.480 , последнее сообщение.

[sol]

Не может быть, чтобы не было оперативной съемки с истребителя\ и с земли - на случай чего и разбора полетов, а также для истории, отчетности и налогоплательщика

[Leroy]

Не может быть, чтобы не было оперативной съемки с истребителя\ и с земли - на случай чего и разбора полетов, а также для истории, отчетности и налогоплательщика

Ясно, что всё это есть. Вопрос -- что из этого мы увидим.

[Tiger]

Птица после посадки, изучаем: