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from the spy-vs-spy-or-who-watches-the-satellite-watchers? dept.
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @04:30AM (10 children)
You woke me up. If you are still in Elementary School, I'll give you credit for skills beyond your years, but you need to know that waking people up in the middle of the night and making people wait 2 minutes for a 911 operator is wrong on so many levels.
If you are older than about 12, you don't get any kudos. Waking people up and doing thing to flood 911 is not just wrong but it's totally lame. I hope you spend some time in jail for this.
(Score: 1) by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),- on Monday May 08 2017, @05:05AM (2 children)
I take it you live in Florida?
https://newrepublic.com/article/114112/anonymouth-linguistic-tool-might-have-helped-jk-rowling
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday May 08 2017, @05:59PM (1 child)
If he does, then I have no sympathy. That's what you get for living in Florida. That state is full of crazy. Sonic booms in the middle of the night are the least of your problems if you live in Florida.
(Score: 1) by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),- on Monday May 08 2017, @07:03PM
Definitely.
http://coed.com/2016/06/15/alligator-eats-child-baby-disney-world-orlando-florida-story-info-facts/ [coed.com]
https://newrepublic.com/article/114112/anonymouth-linguistic-tool-might-have-helped-jk-rowling
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @06:20AM (4 children)
Were you injured? Was your house damaged in some way? Did you go outside and look for a big cloud of smoke? If you answered no to any of these, why the hell did you call 911? If it was that loud don't you think the police and fire departments heard it too? How many people with real emergencies had to wait because people like you wet their beds?
(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
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 08 2017, @07:26AM (1 child)
You don't call 911 when a passing black triangle UFO rattles your house?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday May 08 2017, @08:21AM
How would he know it was a UFO, he was asleep. Even if he weren't it would be long gone by the time he looked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @01:53PM
You really called 911 cause of a sonic boom? Lame. You need to grow up. You hear a loud noise, turn on the news or radio. The explanation will shortly be broadcast, you dont need the personal handholding from the 911 operator do you?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday May 08 2017, @03:00PM
The landing occurred at 7:47 a.m.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 4, Touché) by bob_super on Monday May 08 2017, @05:58AM (4 children)
> made history by landing for the first time in Florida instead of California.
Made history? [facepalm]
Someone didn't have anything besides "landed, top secret", and tried to make a big deal out of it.
I'll call that "journalist" to have him cover how, for the first time since december 2015, I had to fix my fence today. It was also the first time in history I had to hammer that particular nail.
> It also set the on-orbit endurance record at 718 days, or almost two years.
Yeah... We're gonna need to ask you to qualify that "record" for us, so narrowly that it applies to the X-37 only...
I'm not even sure if Stardust's 7 years are the longest mission that returned intact, or if we should count the central node of Mir ... or Zarya.
(Score: 1) by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),- on Monday May 08 2017, @06:13AM (1 child)
Hey, it's CNN, what do you expect?
Here's the press release: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/232882/x-37b-orbital-test-vehicle-4-lands-kennedy-space-center [dvidshub.net]
https://newrepublic.com/article/114112/anonymouth-linguistic-tool-might-have-helped-jk-rowling
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @12:31PM
I expect breaking news, that's what I expect!
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday May 08 2017, @09:03AM
first shuttle landings in Florida:
Columbia was the first shuttle to arrive at the SLF via the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on March 24, 1979.
The runway was first used by a space shuttle on 11 February 1984, when the STS-41-B mission returned to Earth. This also marked the first-ever landing of a spacecraft at its launch site. Prior to this, all shuttle landings were performed at Edwards Air Force Base in California (with the exception of STS-3, which landed at White Sands Space Harbor) [...]
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Landing_Facility#Space_Shuttle [wikipedia.org]
first landing of an automated shuttle:
After making an automated approach to Site 251 (known as Yubileyniy Airfield), Buran touched down under its own control at 06:24:42 UTC and came to a stop at 06:25:24, 206 minutes after launch.
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29#Orbital_flight [wikipedia.org]
Maybe this is the first landing of an automated shuttle in Florida? Unless the Chinese one landed there...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 08 2017, @09:25PM
Whatever it is, I doubt it is as "mission critical" as a spaceborne weapons platform. If it were that, they'd have (at least) two with continuous coverage on-orbit. Spy-plane seems a little out there, too - what can it do that smaller, cheaper spy sats can't? Generate a bunch of press and mystery every time it takes off and lands? Check, mission accomplished. Now: what is it distracting us from?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday May 08 2017, @09:04AM (2 children)
If NASA can track all that space debris using radar. Why would not anyone be able to track this machine? thus no secret.
It would likely emit radio energy and a heat signature.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday May 08 2017, @12:22PM
I think the secret part is not where it was, but what it did there.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),- on Monday May 08 2017, @01:50PM
Mike Colleta https://www.qrz.com/db/KM0MMM/ [qrz.com] appears to have tracked it using a home-made yagi with the now defunct "space fence"
https://gigaom.com/2013/08/15/tracking-the-international-space-station-with-metal-coat-hangers/ [gigaom.com]
His now defunct website: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20131129085252/http://www.satwatch.org:80/ [archive.org]
https://newrepublic.com/article/114112/anonymouth-linguistic-tool-might-have-helped-jk-rowling
(Score: 1) by pr on Monday May 08 2017, @01:28PM (1 child)
I'd love to know...
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 08 2017, @04:31PM
Stuff that requires some very careful handling. I don't think these guys [wikipedia.org] really want to be in the the Florida sun in May in full gear without a good reason.
Unless those are just portable A/C...