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A time record of an uncrewed vehicle and orbit is... not really news worthy. I mean, you put it up there, and if the orbit is high enough, it simply stays ther
by perlgeek 7y ago
A time record of an uncrewed vehicle and orbit is... not really news worthy.
I mean, you put it up there, and if the orbit is high enough, it simply stays there, no action required.
This doesn't seem to be much more impressive than a satellite that stays operational for 10+ years in orbit (and there are quite many of those).
- nkrisc 7y agoAnd those satellites burn up in the atmosphere when their useful life has expired. This is notable because it returned to Earth in one piece.
- perlgeek 7y agoYes, but that has been done before. The newsworthy portion seems to have been that it's been longer in orbit than before, and then returned. Is it really all that impressive that it stayed 2 years in orbit before returning, instead of 1.5 years? I'm sorry, I just don't see what the story is here.
- nkrisc 7y ago> I'm sorry, I just don't see what the story is here. That's OK. I still found it interesting even if it wasn't some kind of superlative.
- sq_ 7y agoI think the important part is the "spooky factor" of "this highly maneuverable space plane can stay on orbit for two years doing who knows what". The implication is that the US military has a vehicle that can stay on orbit for as long as they want and move around to do anything from deploying secret satellites to spying to disabling enemy spacecraft without anyone else necessarily knowing what happened.