magnemoe Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 On 11/8/2024 at 3:18 AM, AckSed said: Gunther's Space Page (great and comprehensive resource BTW) says that X37B is a reusable unmanned satellite. Honestly, I see the point. It stays in orbit for a year or more, does experiments for the DoD then lands again. Only this time it's conducting aerobraking tests. A bit necro but I assume they use it to test aging of stuff exposed to space. Yes you can do this on the IIS but then its public, you could also carry an radiation source to add more radiation on sample, again something you can not do on the IIS. Yes its kind of overkill but its an internal project and has some capability dragon lacks. Dragon probably also don't have the security rating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted Friday at 02:38 PM Share Posted Friday at 02:38 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted Friday at 02:51 PM Share Posted Friday at 02:51 PM Man, it looks used; intact, but definitely been through the wars, so to speak. Like the Millennium Falcon. Strangely, the thing I'm most impressed about is the tyres: in space for years, exposed to vacuum, radiation, extreme temperature fluctuations and they are still flexible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted Friday at 03:04 PM Share Posted Friday at 03:04 PM I frickin love X-37B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted Friday at 03:23 PM Share Posted Friday at 03:23 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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