Shuttle/Shuttle Concept Restart: Fwd: X-37B Launched

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 21, 2015 at 8:08:05 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: X-37B Launched

United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for the U.S. Air Force
Atlas V AFSPC-5 Mission Brochure

Atlas V AFSPC-5 Photos and Videos

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., (May 20, 2015) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket successfully launched the Air Force Space Command 5 (AFSPC-5) satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 11:05 a.m. EDT today from Space Launch Complex-41. The rocket carried the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle or OTV, a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force.

"ULA is honored to launch this unique spacecraft for the U.S Air Force. Congratulations to the Air Force and all of our mission partners on today's successful launch! The seamless integration between the Air Force, Boeing, and the entire mission team culminated in today's successful launch of the AFSPC-5 mission" said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.

This Atlas V mission also includes the Aft Bulkhead Carrier (ABC) carrying the National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO's) Ultra Lightweight Technology and Research Auxiliary Satellite (ULTRASat). ULTRASat is composed of 10 CubeSats managed by the NRO and NASA. "The ABC contained 8 P-Pods that released 10 CubeSats that were successfully delivered. The CubeSats were developed by the U.S Naval Academy, the Aerospace Corporation, Air Force Research Laboratory, The Planetary Society and California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo to conduct various on orbit experiments" said Sponnick.

This mission was launched aboard an Atlas V 501 configuration Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) , which includes a 5.4-meter-diameter payload fairing. The Atlas booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine, and the Centaur upper stage was powered by the Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C-1 engine. This was ULA's sixth launch of the 501 configuration, and ULA's 54th mission to launch on an Atlas V rocket.

ULA's next launch is the Atlas V GPS IIF-10 mission for the U. S. Air Force, scheduled for July 15 from Space Launch Complex-41 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

The EELV program was established by the United States Air Force to provide assured access to space for Department of Defense and other government payloads. The commercially developed EELV program supports the full range of government mission requirements, while delivering on schedule and providing significant cost savings over the heritage launch systems.

With more than a century of combined heritage, United Launch Alliance is the nation's most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered more than 90 satellites to orbit that provide critical capabilities for troops in the field, aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, enable personal device-based GPS navigation and unlock the mysteries of our solar system.

For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch, twitter.com/ulalaunch and instagram.com/ulalaunch.

Copyright © 2015 United Launch Alliance, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Secret space plane catches ride into orbit
James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY 4:27 p.m. EDT May 20, 2015

(Photo: CRAIG RUBADOUX)

Atlas V rocket launches from Cape Canaveral with the Air Force's X-37B mini-shuttle, 10 CubeSats and The Planetary Society's LightSail mission. ULA video. Posted 5-20-15
CAPE CANAVERAL – What will a military space plane do in low Earth orbit? How long will it stay there? Where will it land?
Speculation about purpose and duration of the Air Force's fourth, mostly classified X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission began anew after its 11:05 a.m. Wednesday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop an United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
The unpiloted mini-shuttle departed with a new question about whether it might for the first time end its mission by rolling to a stop on Kennedy Space Center's three-mile runway, like astronauts in larger shuttles last did nearly four years ago.
The X-37B program is in the process of consolidating its operations in two former space shuttle hangars at KSC, giving it the option to land close to its Cape Canaveral launch site.
Work to prepare KSC as a landing site is ongoing, and the mission could still land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as the previous three did.
"The future landing location will be determined by a variety of factors," Capt. Chris Hoyler, an Air Force spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. "The program expects to have the capability to land in Florida in mid to late 2016, however, at this time it would be premature to specify where OTV-4 will land."
Weighing 11,000 pounds with a nearly 15-foot wingspan, the X-37B is designed to stay in orbit for 270 days. But the first three missions flew progressively longer, with the last two spanning 469 days and 674 days – ample time for KSC to be ready to receive the fourth mission if it lasts as long.
The Air Force says the X-37B is advancing reusable spacecraft technologies, and allows systems to be tested in space, returned to the ground for inspection and potentially flown again before they are deployed operationally.
Wednesday's launch broadcast was blacked out about five minutes into the flight to protect the mission's secrecy.
ULA later declared it a success, along with the deployment of 10 small satellites that included The Planetary Society's first LightSail mission, a shoe box-sized demonstration of using solar energy to propel spacecraft.
"When you're using solar energy, it's there all the time," said Bill Nye, CEO of the nonprofit Planetary Society. "Although it's a very small thrust, it's continuous, so you can go, hypothetically, as far as you want in space."
The Air Force did not confirm which of its two Boeing-built X-37B space planes launched Wednesday, saying that decision was based on mission objectives.
But it did disclose more about this mission than previous ones, revealing that an experimental Air Force propulsion system and a NASA materials science experiment were among the payloads.
Brian Weeden, technical analyst at the Secure World Foundation, said that information supported his belief that the X-37B's main reason for being is to test technologies with a "try before you buy mentality."
He said the Air Force appeared to be trying to increase the still-opaque program's transparency, though that hasn't dispelled some nations' concerns that the mini-shuttle might take out enemy satellites or even deploy a weapon — capabilities the U.S. worries its adversaries are developing.
"The whole issue of an arms race in space and concerns about potential attacks on space capabilities has increased," Weeden said in an e-mail. "What the future holds for the X-37B technology is still very much a concern by outside observers, including Russia, China and even Europe."
On "60 Minutes" recently, Gen. John Hyten, head of Air Force Space Command, refused to answer a question about whether the X-37B could become a space weapons platform, saying only that it was "for cool things."
"I'm not going to say what it's going to become, because we're experimenting," Hyten said.
Whenever and wherever the newly launched mission lands, NASA's Kennedy Space Center will soon be the home base for those experiments.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean @floridatoday.com.

Copyright © 2015 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved.

Recap story: X-37B spaceplane embarks on fourth voyage in orbit
May 20, 2015 by Justin Ray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GVnFWGjZzto
CAPE CANAVERAL — A windowless, robotic space shuttle with stubby wings, two tail fins, its belly covered with black thermal tiles, clam-shell doors that swing open to reveal a small payload bay and a solar array that unfurls for powering ultralong-duration missions rode back into orbit Wednesday on the fourth mission of the Air Force's reusable X-37B spaceplane project.
Known as Orbital Test Vehicle mission No. 4, the craft was boosted into low-Earth orbit by a two-stage United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket that lifted off at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT) from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"It's really for cool things. For instance, it goes up to space but, unlike other satellites, it actually comes back. Anything that we put in the payload bay that we take up to space, we can now bring back, and we can learn from that," Gen. John Hyten, the head of Space Command, told CBS News on its "60 Minutes" program last month.
But the military won't say which of its two X-37B spaceplanes launchd today, the first craft which has flown twice or the second vehicle that has flown once. "No, that information is not releasable due to operational objectives," said Air Force spokesman Capt. Chris Hoyler.
Today's uneventful launch countdown lasted seven hours, as the rocket was initially powered up, put through its testing protocols, then fueled with supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Remarkably, it was the 21st consecutive Atlas mission to fuel-and-launch on a single countdown attempt dating back to OTV No. 3 in 2012.
The 20-story-tall, 757,000-pound launcher billowed a plume of steam from the flame trench, then lumbered ever so slowly off the pad in the Atlas 5's 501-variant that doesn't use solid-fuel boosters for an added kick of thrust at liftoff.
Instead, it was the RD-180 main engine, making its 60th flight with 100 percent success, providing 860,000 pounds of thrust and all the power for the first four-and-a-half minutes of flight, flawlessly sending the rocket eastward above the ocean.
The launch had the codename Air Force Space Command 5, or AFSPC 5, and flew aboard the rocket with a tailnumber AV-054.
Today marked the 54th flight for Atlas 5, born of the Air Force's competition to develop next-generation Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles. In its 54 missions since debuting in August 2002, the Atlas 5 has flown 20 flights dedicated to the Defense Department, 12 for NASA, 11 with spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. and 11 commercial missions with communications and Earth-observing spacecraft.
The first separation event was performed when the rocket's 18-foot in diameter payload shroud and load-supporter were jettisoned to unveil the X-37B to space just shy of four minutes into the flight. Staging soon followed as the spent first stage dropped away and the cryogenic RL10C-1 engine on the Centaur upper stage was lit.
Credit: ULA animation
A single firing by Centaur was all that was needed, a 13-minute burn that heaved the OTV into the desired orbit. Deployment of the spaceplane occurred about 19 minutes after liftoff.
The Centaur later performed another burn and deployed a fleet of tiny Cubesats into a separate orbit, including The Planetary Society's LightSail solar-sail testbed.
It was the third Atlas 5 launch of the year and the program's sixth use of the 501-configuration. For ULA, this was its 96th mission overall since 2006, the 46th Atlas 5 to fly under the company's banner and fifth combined Atlas and Delta flight of the year.
One-quarter the size of NASA's now-retired space shuttle orbiters, the unmanned X-37B conducts its mission and then autonomously returns to Earth, braking from orbit, plunging through the atmosphere and gliding to a pinpoint touchdown on a conventional runway to be refurbished and reused.
"We're very pleased with the experiments lined-up for our fourth OTV Mission OTV 4," said Randy Walden, the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. "We'll continue to evaluate improvements to the space vehicle's performance, but we're honored to host these collaborative experiments that will help advance the state-of-the-art for space technology."
The Air Force has publicly disclosed two experiments flying aboard OTV No. 4. The first is characterizing the performance of design modifications to electric propulsion ion thrusters used aboard the military's Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellites.
The other is a NASA-led advanced materials investigation that features nearly 100 quarter-sized samples of polymers, composites and coatings that will be exposed to the space environment.
X-37B features a pickup truck-size cargo bay, seven feet long and four feet wide.
The craft's unique capability to drop from orbit and land on a runway allows technicians to get their hands on the hardware after it spent considerable time in space.
Built by Boeing's Phantom Works division, the spaceplane is 29 feet long with a wing span of 15 feet, made of light-weight composite structures instead of aluminum and shielded with improved leading-edge ceramic insulation panels on its wings and tougher silica tiles affixed to its belly that are designed to be more durable than first-generation tiles used on the space shuttle. It can weigh up to 11,000 pounds fueled for launch.
Unlike the space shuttles that used cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen reactants to generate electricity through onboard fuel cells, limiting the mission lengths by the amount of consumables that could be carried, the OTV is powered by a deployable solar array. The longest shuttle flight was 18 days.
A collection of ten Cubesats also hitched a ride into low-Earth orbit aboard the Atlas 5 rocket and were to be deployed a few hours after the X-37B spaceplane. Together, the Cubesats are known as ULTRASat, or the Unique Lightweight Technology and Research Auxiliary Satellite.
They rode inside eight Poly-Pico Orbital Deployers built by the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the P-PODs were packaged in the Naval Post-graduate School's box-like CubeSat Launcher affixed to the Centaur upper stage next to the RL10 engine. The National Reconnaissance Office and NASA sponsored the ULTRASat launch.
(info provided by ULA):
* USS Langley: One 3U CubeSat from the U.S. Naval Academy to demonstrate the ability to host a web server aboard a CubeSat.
* BRICSat-P: The Ballistically Reinforced Communication Satellite – Propulsion Test Unit is one 1.5U CubeSat from the U.S. Naval Academy and George Washington University. It will characterize the performance of miniature pulse plasma thrusters.
* Psat: From the Naval Academy is one 1.5U CubeSat called ParkinsonSat. It is a communications payload with two transponders operating in the Amateur Satellite Service.
* GEARRS: One 3U CubeSat from Near Space Launch and Air Force Research Lab is the Globalstar Evaluation And Risk Reduction Spacecraft to demonstrate the use of the Globalstar constellation as a path for near continuous command and control of low-earth orbit space vehicles.
* AeroCube-8: The Aerospace Corporation, MIT and eSpace have teamed for two 1.5U CubeSats to demonstrate NRO-funded research and development of Carbon Nanotube and Scalable ion Electrospray Propulsion system.
* Optical CubeSat: California Polytechnic State University built three 3U CubeSats to provide on-orbit targets as calibrate sensors for orbital debris studies.
* Lightsail-A: A one 3U CubeSat from The Planetary Society designed to demonstrate the viability of using solar sailing for propulsion.
The burgeoning Cubesat field allows technical organizations and schools the fly low-cost payloads into space, piggybacking on available rockets launching primary payloads that offer up some spare performance for the mini passenger payloads.
Another batch of cubes is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas 5 rocket later this year. That National Reconnaissance Office NROL-55 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California will deploy the Cubesat collection dubbed the Government Rideshare Advanced Concepts Experiments, or GRACE mission.
The next launch for the Atlas 5 is planned for July 15 carrying another replacement satellite to bolster the Global Positioning System.

Photos: Atlas 5 sets sail to orbit
May 21, 2015 by Justin Ray
A windowless, robotic space shuttle with stubby wings, two tail fins, its belly covered with black thermal tiles, clam-shell doors that swing open to reveal a small payload bay and a solar array that unfurls for powering ultralong-duration missions rode back into orbit Wednesday on the fourth mission of the Air Force's reusable X-37B spaceplane project.
Photo credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images
© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

X-37B Air Force Space Plane Launches on 4th Mystery Military Mission and Solar Sailing Test
by Ken Kremer on May 20, 2015

Blastoff of the X-37B spaceplane on United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the OTV-4 AFSPC-5 satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 11:05 a.m. EDT, May 20, 2015 from Space Launch Complex-41. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
The X-37B, a reusable Air Force space plane launched today, May 20, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its fourth mission steeped in mystery as to its true goals for the U.S . military and was accompanied by ten tiny cubesat experiments for NASA and the NRO, including a solar sailing demonstration test for The Planetary Society.
The military space plan successfully blasted off for low Earth orbit atop a 20 story United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket on the clandestine Air Force Space Command 5 (AFSPC-5) satellite mission for the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT) today, May 20, from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
The weather cooperated for a spectacular liftoff from the Florida space coast, which was webcast live by ULA until five minutes after launch when it went into a communications blackout shortly after announcing the successful ignition of the Centaur upper stage.
The exact launch time was classified until it was released by the Department of Defense this morning. Early this morning the four hour launch window was narrowed down to two small windows of opportunity.
USAF X-37B orbital test vehicle launches atop United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on May 20, 2015 on OTV-4 mission. Credit: Alex Polimeni
Among the experiments for the flight are 10 CubeSats housed in the Aft Bulkhead Carrier (ABC) located below the Centaur upper stage. Together they are part of the National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO's) Ultra Lightweight Technology and Research Auxiliary Satellite (ULTRASat). The 10 CubeSats in ULTRASat are managed by the NRO and NASA. They are contained in eight P-Pods from which they will be deployed in the coming days.
Following primary spacecraft separation the Centaur will change altitude and inclination in order to release the CubeSat spacecraft.
They are sponsored by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and NASA and were developed by the U.S. Naval Academy, the Aerospace Corporation, the Air Force Research Laboratory, California Polytechnic State University, and The Planetary Society.
LightSail marks the first controlled, Earth orbit solar sail flight according to the non-profit Planetary Society. Photons from the sun should push on the solar sails.
"The purpose of this LightSail demonstration test is to verify telemetry, return photos return and to test the deployment of the solar sails," said Bill Nye, the Science Guy), and President of The Planetary Society, during the X-37B launch webcast.
"LightSail is comprised of three CubeSats that measure about 30 cm by 10 cm."
"It's smaller than a shoebox, everybody! And the sail that will come out of it is super shiny mylar. We're very hopeful that the thing will deploy properly, the sunlight will hit it and we'll get a push."
United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch of USAF X-37B orbital test vehicle on May 20, 2015. Credit: Julian Leek
The Boeing-built X-37B is an unmanned reusable mini shuttle, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) and is flying on the OTV-4 mission. It launches vertically like a satellite but lands horizontally like an airplane and functions as a reliable and reusable space test platform for the U.S. Air Force.
"ULA is honored to launch this unique spacecraft for the U.S Air Force. Congratulations to the Air Force and all of our mission partners on today's successful launch! The seamless integration between the Air Force, Boeing, and the entire mission team culminated in today's successful launch of the AFSPC-5 mission" said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.
The two stage Atlas V stands 206 feet tall and weighs 757,000 pounds.
The X-37B was carried to orbit by the Atlas V in its 501 configuration which includes a 5.4-meter-diameter payload fairing and no solid rocket motors. The Atlas first stage booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine generating some 850,000 pounds of thrust and fired for approximately the first four and a half minutes of flight. The Centaur upper stage was powered by the Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C-1 engine.
The X-37B space plane was to separate from the Centaur about 19 minutes after liftoff. The Centaur continued firing separately with the CubeSat deployment, including the Planetary Society's LightSail test demoonstration, into a different orbit later.
Overall this was ULA's sixth launch of the 501 configuration the 54th mission to launch on an Atlas V rocket. This was also ULA's fifth launch in 2015 and the 96th successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.
The OTV is somewhat like a miniature version of NASA's space shuttles.
Boeing has built two OTV vehicles. But it is not known which of the two vehicles was launched today.
Altogether the two X-37B vehicles have spent a cumulative total of 1367 days in space during the first three OTV missions and successfully checked out the vehicles reusable flight, reentry and landing technologies.
The 11,000 pound (4990 kg) state-of -the art reusable OTV space plane was built by Boeing and is about a quarter the size of a NASA space shuttle. It was originally developed by NASA but was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2004.
USAF X-37B orbital test vehicle poised for launch atop United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on May 20, 2015 on OTV-4 mission. Credit: Alex Polimeni
All three OTV missions to date have launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Future missions could potentially land at the shuttle landing facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The first OTV mission launched on April 22, 2010, and concluded on Dec. 3, 2010, after 224 days in orbit.
The following flights were progressively longer in duration. The second OTV mission began March 5, 2011, and concluded on June 16, 2012, after 468 days on orbit. The third OTV mission launched on Dec. 11, 2012 and landed on Oct. 17, 2014 after 674 days in orbit.
The vehicle measures 29 ft 3 in (8.9 m) in length with a wingspan of 14 ft 11 in (4.5 m). The payload bay measures 7 ft × 4 ft (2.1 m × 1.2 m). The space plane is powered by Gallium Arsenide Solar Cells with Lithium-Ion batteries.
Among the primary mission goals of the first three flights were check outs of the vehicles capabilities and reentry systems and testing the ability to send experiments to space and return them safely. OTV-4 will shift somewhat more to conducting research.
"We are excited about our fourth X-37B mission," Randy Walden, director of the USAF's Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement. "With the demonstrated success of the first three missions, we're able to shift our focus from initial checkouts of the vehicle to testing of experimental payloads."
US Air Force X-37B OTV-4 mini space shuttle is encapsulated in 5 meter payload fairing and bolted atop an Atlas 5 rocket at Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida prior to planned 20 May 2015 launch. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Ken Kremer
Launch of the X-37B spaceplane on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the AFSPC-5 satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 11:05 a.m. EDT, May 20, 2015 from Space Launch Complex-41. Credit: ULA
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket successfully launched the AFSPC-5 satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 11:05 a.m. EDT today, Wednesday, May 20, 2015 from Space Launch Complex-41. Credit: ULA

AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
May 20th, 2015
PHOTOS: Atlas-V Delivers Lightsail and Air Force X-37B to Orbit Packed With Cubesats and Experiments
By Craig Covault
The Air Force AFSPC-5 mission launched into clear blue skies from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station today. Onboard is the secretive X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (its fourth mission) and a variety of cubists and experiments for the NAVY, NRO, USAF and NASA, including the Lightsail test article from The Planetary Society. Photo Credit: Alan Walters / AmericaSpace
It was an unusually busy 2.5-hour Atlas-V secret mission that carried the U.S. Air Force/Boeing X-37B spaceplane aloft today, with its payload bay likely packed with optics and a slew of National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) small satellites attached to its Centaur. An unclassified Air Force Xenon thruster and NASA materials samples are also being elevated out of the bay, along with X-37B's secret sensors.
The mission began with liftoff from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 11:05 a.m. EDT, then climbing on a 61-degree azimuth. This was followed by separation of the X-37B spaceplane 15 minutes later in a 350 km (218 mi.) orbit inclined 39 deg. to the equator.
This 61 deg. Atlas-V launch Azimuth flown today, May 20, equates to a 39 deg. orbit inclination for the X-37-B. Image Credit: Google Earth / Ted Molczan / NOAA
Then, in a rarely seen maneuver for a top secret mission, the Centaur was fired up again for a spectacular 18-degree plane change into a 57-degree orbit. It did this to climb into a 350 x 700 km (218 x 485 mi.) orbit, where 10 Cubesats were deployed out of the U.S. Navy's ULTRAsat deployment mechanism mounted at the aft end of the Centaur. This included a NASA/Planetary Society 344 sq. ft. LightSail that Bill Nye, who directs the group, said will unfold 28 days after separation.
The cubesat deployments were all accomplished before a third Centaur burn put the upper stage into a dive for the Southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica within 2.5 hours of liftoff.
The Ultra Lightweight Technology and Research Auxiliary Satellite (ULTRASat), which consisted of the 10 CubeSats contained in eight Poly-Pico Orbital Deployers (P-PODs), were built by the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The eight P-PODs were integrated into a structure built by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, Calif. Seven of the eight P-PODs contain a total of nine NRO-sponsored CubeSats, while one of the P-PODs has one NASA-sponsored satellite, the LightSail.
Most of the Cubesats were described in the AmericaSpace X-37B OTV-4 preflight story May 18, but two that were not are the GEARRS and OptiCubes Project. Their functions are:
GEARRS: For Globalstar Evaluation And Risk Reduction Spacecraft. The demonstration is built around three Cubesats to demonstrate the use of the Globalstar constellation as a path for near continuous command and control of low-Earth orbit space vehicles. It has been developed by the Near Space Launch company and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) headquartered at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.
OptiCubes: Developed by California Polytechnic State University ("Cal Poly") Three 3U CubeSats provide on-orbit targets for ground assets to calibrate sensors for orbital debris studies and small-object tracking improvements.
In addition to being small and hard to track, cubesat numbers are on the rise, and once launched many of them will linger far beyond their useful lifetimes. There were 92 nano/microsats launched in 2013, 158 nano/microsats launched in 2014, and a predicted 2,000 – 2,750 nano/microsats to be launched within the next five years.
Atlas-V launch of the Air Force AFSPC-5 mission, carrying the OTV-4 X-37B and Lightsail. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace
The Air Force has guaranteed NASA at least 222 days in space for a detailed materials exposure suite on this fourth flight of the X-37B. It is designated OTV-4/AFSC-5 for Air Force Space Command 5. AFSC-1 was flown using an expendable carrier.
The X-37B's first flight launched April 22, 2010, and spent nearly 225 days aloft. The second X-37B mission was launched March 5, 2011, and spent 469 days aloft. The third mission was launched on Dec. 11, 2012, and spent 674 days in orbit.
Boeing built two X-37Bs, and they alternate missions. The Air Force has taken over two former space shuttle orbiter processing facilities (OPF's) at next door Kennedy Space Center, where the spaceplanes will be processed from now on instead of at Vandenberg AFB in CA. X-37B landings on the KSC shuttle runway will follow.
Before launch, The Space Foundation selected the U.S. Air Force-Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) Team to receive one of its top honors, the 2015 Space Achievement Award. The award was presented on April 13 during the opening ceremony of the 31st Space Symposium at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., co-sponsored by Northrop Grumman.
The award citation reads, "The 2015 Space Achievement Award is presented to the U.S. Air Force-Boeing X-37B Team, for significantly advancing the state of the art for reusable spacecraft and on-orbit operations, with the design, development, test and orbital operation of the X-37B space flight vehicle over three missions totaling 1,367 days in space," said Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham.
The Space Achievement Award recognizes individuals or organizations for breakthrough space technology or critical milestones in the evolution of space exploration and development.
The launch marked the fourth flight of the X-37B, the fifth Atlas-V 501 rocket launch, and was the 54th Russian powered Atlas-V launch using the controversial RD-180 engine which, from a performance standpoint, has worked flawlessly.
BELOW: Photos of the AFSPC-5 launch with the OTV-4 X-37B and Lightsail spacecraft. Credits to Alan Walters, Mike Killian and Matt Gaetjens for AmericaSpace, all rights reserved.

Copyright © 2015 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

Air Force launches hush-hush mini-shuttle into space
By MARCIA DUNN
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A mysterious space plane rocketed into orbit Wednesday, carrying no crew but a full load of technology experiments.
The Air Force launched its unmanned mini-shuttle late Wednesday morning. An Atlas V rocket lifted it up and out over the Atlantic.
This is the fourth flight for the military research program, which is shrouded in secrecy. The last X-37B mission lasted 674 days and ended with a California touchdown.
Altogether, the first three X-37B flights spanned 1,367 days. That's 3½ years.
The Air Force won't say how long this particular mission will last or where it will end. Public commentary about the launch ended barely five minutes after liftoff, well before the space plane was supposed to settle into a relatively low orbit.
The X-37B looks like a miniature version of a NASA space shuttle. It is 29 feet long — about one-quarter the length of a space shuttle — and its wingspan is about 15 feet.
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In this photo released by United Launch Alliance, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is rolled …
Like the old shuttle, the Boeing-built X-37B launches vertically and lands horizontally, is reusable, and has lots of room for experiments. But no one flies on them; they are operated robotically.
This X-37B — also known as OTV, or orbital test vehicle — has a materials-sample experiment on board for NASA, as well as an experimental electric-propulsion thruster for the Air Force. But perhaps the most intriguing payload, at least from the public point of view, is a solar-sail demo sponsored by the Planetary Society.
The society's chief executive officer, Bill Nye, better known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, said a large, light, shiny Mylar sail measuring 32 square meters (344 square feet) was tucked into a small box for liftoff. The intent is for sunlight to propel it, once it is released and deployed in orbit. The sail hitched a ride on the upper-stage rocket for a test flight.
Such technology could be useful for future missions to monitor solar weather and keep a lookout for possible asteroids headed our way.
"We're very hopeful that the thing will deploy properly, sunlight will hit it and get a push," Nye said after liftoff.
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In this photo released by United Launch Alliance, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is rolled …
A similar experiment by the group was lost in a Russian launch accident 10 years ago. This time, it turned to United Launch Alliance, a venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. ULA called the liftoff a success.
The group's members are "very happy to be aboard a U.S.-built, high-reliability big-time rocket," Nye told Atlas launch control, "So thank you guys."

Copyright © 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

US Air Force Launches X-37B Space Plane on 4th Mystery Mission
by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | May 20, 2015 11:30am ET

The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane blasted into Earth orbit today, kicking off the robotic vehicle's clandestine fourth mission — as well as the first flight of a tiny solar-sailing spacecraft.
An unmanned United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches the X-37B military space plane on its fourth secret mission for the U.S. Air Force on May 20, 2015 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Credit: United Launch Alliance
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The robotic X-37B space plane launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket today (May 20) at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can see a video of the X-37B space plane's launch here.
Most details about the space plane's orbital activities are classified, so it's unclear what exactly the X-37B will be doing as it zooms around Earth, or how long it will remain aloft. But Air Force officials have said that mission number four — known as Orbital Test Vehicle-4 (OTV-4) — will concentrate less on the X-37B itself and more on the gear the spacecraft is carrying to orbit. [X-37B Space Plane's 4th Mystery Mission in Photos]
"We are excited about our fourth X-37B mission," Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement late last month. "With the demonstrated success of the first three missions, we're able to shift our focus from initial checkouts of the vehicle to testing of experimental payloads."
Also on board the Atlas V were 10 miniscule "cubesats," including the LightSail solar sail that was developed by the nonprofit Planetary Society. LightSail aims to prove out key solar-sailing technology ahead of a more ambitious orbital trial next year.
An artist's depiction of the U.S. Air Force's unmanned X-37B space plane in orbit with its solar array deployed and payload bay open.
Credit: United Launch Alliance/Boeing
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Robotic minishuttle
The U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane is a miniature space shuttle capable of long, classified missions in orbit. See how the X-37B space plane works in this Space.com infographic.
Credit: By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist
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The Air Force owns two X-37B spacecraft, both of which were built by Boeing's Phantom Works division. Each space plane is just 29 feet long by 9.5 feet tall (8.8 by 2.9 meters), with a wingspan of 15 feet (4.6 m) and a payload bay the size of a pickup-truck bed. To put those dimensions into perspective, both X-37Bs could fit inside the payload bay of NASA's now-retired space shuttle orbiter.
The X-37B launches vertically and lands horizontally, on a runway, as the space shuttle did.
The secrecy surrounding X-37B missions has led to speculation in some quarters that the craft is some sort of space weapon — that it's designed to inspect and/or cripple hostile nations' satellites, for example. But Air Force officials have long refuted that notion, saying the X-37B is simply testing out technologies for reusable vehicles and future spacecraft. [Top 10 Space Weapons]
"OTV missions allow us to examine a payload system or technology in the environment in which it will perform its mission," Capt. Chris Hoyler, an Air Force spokesman, told Space.com via email. "The unique aspects of the OTV allow us to mature these new technologies and inspect them following the de-orbit sequence."
Air Force officials have not said how long they expect OTV-4 to last, but the mission will be an extended one if the previous X-37B flights are any guide.
OTV-1 blasted off in April 2010 and landed in December of that year, spending 225 days aloft. OTV-2, which used a different X-37B, launched in March 2011 and stayed in orbit for 469 days. OTV-3 lifted off in December 2012, sending the vehicle that flew OTV-1 to space for 675 days — a record for a reusable space vehicle.
It's unclear if OTV-4 will employ the X-37B that flew OTV-1 and OTV-3, or the space plane that flew OTV-2.
"The program selects the orbital test vehicle for each activity based upon the experiment objectives," Hoyler said in response to this question.
Not a total mystery
The payloads flying to orbit aboard the X-37B on this mission are not a total mystery: The Air Force has revealed that an advanced Hall thruster propulsion system and a NASA materials investigation are among OTV-4's scientific gear.
A Hall thruster is a type of ion engine; it generates thrust by accelerating ions (electrically charged atoms or molecules) out the back of a spacecraft. The engine getting an in-space test on OTV-4 is an advanced version of the Hall thruster that powered the first three Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellites, Air Force officials said.
"A more efficient on-orbit thruster capability is huge," Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio, said in a statement last month. "Less fuel-burn lowers the cost to get up there, plus it enhances spacecraft operational flexibility, survivability and longevity."
The NASA payload, called the Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space experiment, will study how exposure to the space environment affects nearly 100 different types of materials. The goal is to gather data that could aid in the design of future spacecraft, NASA officials have said.
An artist's illustration of the Planetary Society's LightSail solar sail cubesat in orbit.
Credit: The Planetary Society
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Solar sail demonstrator
While the X-37B will likely stay in orbit for many months, the Planetary Society's LightSail spacecraft will come back down to Earth in just a few weeks.
Four weeks from now, LightSail, which is the size of a loaf of bread, will unfurl its 344-square-foot (32 square m) solar sail. But the craft is not going high enough to actually use the sail for propulsion; its maiden flight will test out the cubesat's attitude-control and sail-deployment systems, helping pave the way for a bona fide orbital-sailing test next year.
"It's smaller than a shoebox, everybody! And the sail that will come out of it is super shiny mylar," said Bill Nye (the Science Guy), who leads the Planetary Society, after today's successful launch. "We're very hopeful that the thing will deploy properly, the sunlight will hit it and we'll get a push."
Atmospheric drag will start pulling LightSail back down to Earth as soon as the craft's sail is unfurled, and the cubesat will likely burn up two to 10 days thereafter, Planetary Society representatives have said.
But the shiny sail should make the bantam spacecraft visible to the naked eye during its brief orbital trial. The Planetary Society will provide viewing maps and tips on its website (www.planetary.org) during the mission.

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