In the coming month, Washington plans to launch the X-37B UAV for the second time. The device can stay in orbit for up to 9 months and theoretically can attack ground targets from space.
According to military experts, this is the first step towards creating military robots capable of conducting combat operations in space. The X-37B UAV is a real embodiment of the American concept of the ability to deliver precision strikes anywhere in the world, a precision global strike capability.
Information about what research Washington intends to conduct in space is classified. So far, the United States has only two copies of the Kh-37B.
History of creation
The United States began designing an orbiting aircraft back in the 1950s. The program to create the X-37B spacecraft was launched in 1999 jointly by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boeing Corporation. The first flight took place in 2006.
Tactical and technical characteristics
Length - 8, 38 m
Wingspan - 4.6 m
Height - 2.9 m
Takeoff weight - about 5 tons
Engines - 1 × Rocketdyne AR-2/3
Payload weight - 900 kg
Time spent in orbit - up to 9 months
Purpose of creation
According to official data - delivery of payloads into orbit. According to independent experts, it can be used for intelligence purposes. Also, testing technologies to create an already full-fledged space fighter-interceptor. Which will be able to capture alien objects in space, if necessary, destroy them and even attack ground targets.
We have analogs
the USSR
In the Soviet Union, work on the creation of a gliding spaceplane began almost simultaneously with the United States. In 1959, the first project was developed at OKB-256 (chief designer Pavel Tsybin). But in the same year, the design bureau was disbanded, the employees moved to OKB-23.
Design Bureau of Vladimir Myasishchev, on its own initiative, began designing a hypersonic orbital rocket plane, back in 1956 - "product 46".
But, in 1960, OKB-23 was transferred to Vladimir Chelomey and became part of OKB-62. V. Chelomey began designing a rocket plane in 1959. In 1961, the experimental device MP-1 was launched, in 1964, the Chelomey Design Bureau provided the Air Force with a project for the R-1 rocket plane.
In the fall of 1964, the project was transferred to OKB-155 of Artem Mikoyan, where it was named "Spiral". Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky headed the creation of the Spiral. The goal of the project was to create a manned orbiting spacecraft, with the tasks of performing applied tasks in space and creating the possibility of regular transportation from Earth to orbit and back.
In 1978 the Spiral project was closed in favor of the Buran project.
At the same time, work on the creation of a rocket plane was going on at the OKB-156 of Andrey Tupolev, the project was named "DP" (long-range glider). The last project of the Tu-2000 spaceplane was created in 1988.
Russian Federation
JSC NPO Molniya since 1988, has been developing the MAKS spacecraft. But, he never left the stage of preliminary design.
