Speculation abounds: what is the mission of the X-37B uranium space modulator secret unmanned space vehicle? A clue this week as amateur skywatchers report:
The U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane apparently boosted itself into a new orbit Aug. 9, according to reports from seasoned satellite trackers around the world, SPACE.com has learned.
The orbit-raising maneuver was first noticed Aug. 14 by amateur skywatcher Greg Roberts of Cape Town, South Africa, when the object failed to appear as predicted by the last known orbit. After several nights of searching, Roberts found it again on Aug. 19, which enabled the new orbit to be estimated with sufficient accuracy to easily locate the X-37B space plane on subsequent nights.
While the Air Force remains hush-hush about its mission, an autonomous reusable miniature space shuttle able to change orbit may signal the arrival of teleoperational technology in space — think of those submersibles used to work on the Gulf oil spill. X-37B might repair and refuel Hubble, for example, without the need to send up astronauts. If so, project secrecy may have more to do with the needs of the National Reconnaissance Office than NASA.
