The United States carefully conceals information about the purpose of the American orbital plane
Having created the most powerful fleet of drones, the Pentagon has embarked on a new stage of remotely controlled penetration into near-earth space. On April 22, the US Air Force launched an Atlas V launch vehicle with an X-37B unmanned spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral launch site. The launch and launch into orbit were successful. However, the representatives of the American air force were silent about when this device will return to the ground.
In general, it should be noted that the experimental launch of a new reentry automatic spacecraft is surrounded by a dense veil of secrecy. Details of his mission were not disclosed. Official reports only indicate that the flight was undertaken for research purposes. There is no need to doubt that this is exactly the case, since the X-37B is not yet a full-fledged aircraft, but a technology demonstrator. It makes a completely autonomous flight, and it must also land without human intervention. Therefore, checking the operation of the control system and navigation equipment should really be one of the main goals of this orbital flight.
Among other studies that will be carried out during the experiment and subsequent examination of the X-37B returned to the ground is the test of its heat-shielding sheathing. The latter seems to be of great importance, as thermal insulation problems have plagued American shuttles throughout their lifetime.
The X-37B has a length of 8.9 m, a wingspan of 4.6 m, and a payload of 4990 kg. It is designed for access to low Earth orbits with an altitude of 200-900 km. The device is launched into space under the fairing of the Atlas V launch vehicle. This launch vehicle, by the way, is equipped with Russian-made engines - RD-180.
Initially, since 1999, the project of the X-37 orbital aircraft was developed by Boeing at the request of NASA. In 2001, the first atmospheric tests of the model of the apparatus took place. And in 2004, NASA abandoned it and it entered the disposal of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense (DARPA). In 2006, the first flight tests of the device were carried out by dropping from a transport aircraft. In 2007, the Air Force assigned a new index to the spacecraft - X-37V.
Today, more is known about its characteristics than about the payload that it can carry, or more precisely, the serial sample created on its basis will carry.
It can be assumed that the range of tasks solved by the X-37V will include the performance of reconnaissance operations requiring operational and covert implementation, the launching into orbit and the return to earth of vehicles, which also need to be delivered into space and returned back without unnecessary publicity. According to some observers, the Kh-37B or a similar larger apparatus, created using technologies worked out during the implementation of this program, could become a platform for deploying strike systems - with conventional or nuclear warheads. The advantages of such a platform are that a munition launched from a near-earth orbit will have a short flight time, and accordingly it will be invulnerable to missile defense systems. In addition, the possibility of a long autonomous flight allows you to strike a sudden blow, waiting for the most convenient moment for this.
So far, the deployment of strike weapons in outer space is a precedent causing a sharply negative reaction from most of the world's states. However, given the US striving for global supremacy, the withdrawal of weapons into near-earth space remains, apparently, only a matter of time. It should also be noted that the widespread use and every day increasing importance in ensuring the vital activity and defense of states of space systems makes them very important goals, the destruction of which becomes a decisive factor in success in the event of a large-scale armed conflict. So the careful concealment of the US Air Force information about the possible payload of the X-37B makes it possible to quite unambiguously interpret the purpose of this or the apparatus created on its basis.
In the opinion of Major General Vladimir Belous, retired Major General Vladimir Belous, a leading researcher at the Center for International Security of the IMEMO RAS, the launch of the X-37B is a continuation of the American policy of space exploration. “They do not disclose the military side of the use of an orbital aircraft, but this launch will have a serious impact on space exploration for military purposes,” believes Vladimir Belous. - Since the announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative, the United States has paid serious attention to the use of outer space for the deployment of anti-missile systems. Further development proceeded along the line of creating dual technologies in order to ensure that military space exploration would bring a certain economic effect. The launch also has a dual purpose, the practical results obtained will be used for both civilian and military purposes. The Americans are unlikely to stop and follow the path of further military space exploration."
Today, Russia does not have a ship similar to the Kh-37V. And, most likely, it will not happen in the foreseeable future. Although after the launch of the American orbital plane, the chief designer of NPO Molniya, Vladimir Skorodelov, told the ITAR-TASS agency that the project of the early 1980s to create a multipurpose aerospace system (MAKS) with a reusable aircraft was about the same as the Kh-37B, dimension is still being worked out. The implementation of the project was prevented by the crisis of the 90s, and now the revival of this system, built on technologies of thirty years ago, hardly makes sense. And financial and organizational difficulties will not allow quickly implementing such a complex complex.
To understand how long it takes in modern Russian conditions to implement projects of this kind, one can recall the epic with the creation of a multipurpose manned reusable spacecraft designed to replace the Soyuz. Work in this direction began in the second half of the 90s and has not yet been completed. According to optimistic forecasts, the Perspective Manned Transport System will not be ready until 2015-2018.
