AFSPC-5: X-37B OTV-4, ULTRASat, LightSail A - Atlas V 501 (AV-054) - Канаверал SLC-41 - 20.05.2015 15:05 UTC

[triage]

во как критиковать надо

 https://www.dni.ru/tech/2017/5/10/368798.html
Американская космическая миссия завершилась провалом
...
Таким образом завершилась почти двухгодичная космическая миссия: он провел в небе 700 суток.
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Однако эксперты утверждают, что с поставленными задачами аппарат не справился и его миссия фактически провалилась. "Хотя он (X-37B) может делать несколько операций, он не выглядит хорошо разработанным, чтобы выполнять любую из задач, за исключением красивого и чистого возвращения космического корабля на землю", – заявила эксперт по космической безопасности Лаура Грего в интервью The Atlantic.
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Лаура Грего уверена, что существуют более эффективные и при этом работающие технологии и для вывода полезного груза на орбиту, и для маневров в ближнем космосе. По мнению эксперта, X-37B показал себя слишком неповоротливым, чтобы заявлять о нем как о "прорыве" в реализации космических задач.

Эта Лаура говорила из быстрого поиска
и в 2011

  https://www.wired.com/2011/03/space-plane-back/

"Building this return capability into the space plane adds tons of extra mass compared to maneuvering spacecraft that are not designed to return to Earth," Laura Grego and David Wright from the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists explained in a blog post. "That large mass penalty makes it more difficult and expensive to get a space plane and its payload into orbit and reduces the amount of maneuvering that it can do with a given amount of fuel."

и в 2014

 http://www.space.com/24459-x37b-space-plane-mission-400-days.html
"If the move to Florida means that the Air Force sees a future for the space plane program, it's a good time for Congress and the Administration to ask for a persuasive rationale for spending that money," said Laura Grego, senior scientist in the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Mass.

и сейчас

 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/why-so-secretive/525969/
Knowing all this, Laura Grego, a space-security expert and a senior scientist the Union of Concerned Scientists, wonders whether the X-37B is worth it. "While it can do a number of things, it doesn't seem particularly well-designed to do any of them except for returning a space craft in a nice, tidy way," she told me over email.
Grego said there are more efficient ways of getting things like thrusters and experiments into low-Earth orbit, like the robotic missions that transport cargo to the International Space Station. The X-37B is also not built to be especially agile in orbit, so sidling up to a satellite to check it out would be pretty difficult.
"Maneuverability depends on mass—if you have to haul around wings and landing gear with you on all your zips and zags in space, you will run out of fuel more quickly than if you were designed to be lightweight and agile and never come back to the ground," Grego said. "This is especially true if you are trying to get close to objects that are not already in nearby orbits, that takes a lot of fuel, which needs to be launched along with the plane."