CNN's Amanda Jackson reports:
The Air Force's unmanned aircraft, X-37B, landed successfully Sunday morning at NASA's Kennedy Space Center -- but it didn't come down quietly.
The space plane sent a sonic boom that rattled east-central Florida before 8 a.m., waking residents from their weekend slumber.
[...] The X-37B, which looks like a small plane, made history by landing for the first time in Florida instead of California. It also set the on-orbit endurance record at 718 days, or almost two years.
Speculation on it's role or mission includes: "whether the U.S. has deployed a space-trotting spy vehicle or weapons platform for taking down satellites." http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413046,00.asp
Additional coverage:
* "Air Force's X-37B Space Plane Lands in Florida After Record-Breaking Secret Mission" http://www.space.com/36420-x-37b-space-plane-secret-mission-florida-landing.html
Background:
* Secret Missions of the X-37B https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7qgZKh5X0U
* US Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane (Infographic) http://www.space.com/75-x-37b-spaceplane.html
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37
* Shenlong Space Plane: China's Answer To U.S. X-37B Drone? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/10/shenlong-space-plane-china_n_2110084.html
* X-37B Likely Spying on China's Space Station https://www.defensetech.org/2012/01/06/x-37b-likely-spying-on-chinas-space-station/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by anubi on Monday May 08 2017, @07:23AM (1 child)
People like advance warning on unusual events. Otherwise, knowing the level of tension being maintained over "terrists", people are apt to think the worst.
Now, how would our Government like it if people took to flying drones and launching estes rocket-packs over the White House? They would not like it one bit would they. They would probably invoke an armed response to make it clear there's gonna be some hurt if people don't take their demands seriously.
They knew exactly what the plans were. They could have said something about expecting a sonic boom. They knew exactly what time it was coming through.
Now, if I set off a good-sized explosion, even harmlessly in the riverbed in the wee-wee hours of the morning, and woke everyone up, I am quite sure I would have a helluva lot of 'splainin' to to. And probably serve jail time for pulling off such a stunt. For nothing more than making a helluva lotta noise in the riverbed.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @11:32AM
To play devil's advocate, maybe they didn't want to make its trajectory publicly known ahead of time? However, since everyone knew it was up there and any sort of interference would probably be construed as an act of war, I think my theory isn't enough to justify sonic booming Florida.
That just made me think, they should have added a South American female character with a uni-brow to Street Fighter II