5 ms·

What was the intended mission? I’ve read about the classified missions that went ahead, iirc one of them did use the full capacity.

enave3 5y ago
> What was the intended mission? There were several. A couple of examples: the shuttle could delay release of a payload, maneuver while in orbit, release the payload, then maneuver again. So conceptually, you just put a satellite into an orbit and your enemy doesn't know exactly what orbit its in. I'm sure eventually they would find it, but the military still wants stuff like that. Another example is the ability to grab a satellite and bring it back to Earth. To my knowledge, this was only ever used with the "long-duration exposure facility" because it'd probably be considered an act of war to steal another country's satellites but here again, it's the kind of thing the military would ask for.
- kzrdude 5y ago
  Isn't the shuttle so big that it would be easy to track and see it?
  - enave3 5y ago
    yes, but no country can track a given object in LEO for its entire orbit (unless it's transmitting its position to another satellite). So the idea is that the shuttle launches with a secret payload, and every 90 minutes you see it pass overhead. This goes on for days or weeks. Eventually it lands. What happened? Well what you don't know is that on day 2, while it was over the Pacific and you weren't tracking it, it fired the OMS, deployed a payload, then fired the OMS again to return to it's previous orbit. There's a whole other satellite out there and you don't know about it until you find it by some other means. And eventually you will find it. But the military is happy to pay for that short window of subterfuge.
ddalex 5y ago
Likely snatching enemy satellites in a single orbit (i.e. launch, snatch sattelite, land, all in the same orbit) before enemy can even detect that the shuttle is up there.
gameswithgo 5y ago
No idea, but yes I assume other missions managed to use the full capabilities once it was big!
messe 5y ago
The one that had the biggest influence on the design of the shuttle was probably the plan to launch into a polar orbit, rendezvous with a satellite, capture it, and land as it swung around for the next orbit. This require massive cross-range capability, in order to be able to glide back to a suitable landing site in the US, putting lower limits on the size of the wings.
- echelon 5y ago
  The classified autonomous X-37 [1] has a cargo bay [2] and there are (were?) plans to scale it up to double the size to accommodate larger payloads and crewed missions [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37 [2] https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36440/this-is-our-first-look-at-the-secretive-x-37b-spaceplane-with-its-cargo-bay-doors-open https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36440/this-is-our-firs... [3] http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/aerospace-engineering/spacecraft-design/boeing-x-37c/ http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/aerospace-engineering/spa...
  - spookthesunset 5y ago
    That X-37 photo in the wiki article had me go down the "payload fairing" rabbit hole. Still don't quite know what the "bubble wrap" is on the inside. I assume it is part insulation to protect from extreme heat and part, well, bubble wrap. According to wikipedia those things cost around $6 million to manufacture and spacex was the first to ever bother retrieving them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payload_fairing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payload_fairing
    - aksss 5y ago
      Gosh, the section on "Mission failures caused by payload fairings" is understandable but not something I've ever heard of before. The launch crew error of failing to remove two lanyards.. ugh. To be "that guy" must've sucked.
- adolph 5y ago
  Scott Manley has a wonderful explainer on it "The Most Important Space Shuttle Mission Never Happened": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q2i0eu35aY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q2i0eu35aY
count 5y ago
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1960/1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1960/1 HEXAGON KH-9

enave3 5y ago

> What was the intended mission? There were several. A couple of examples: the shuttle could delay release of a payload, maneuver while in orbit, release the payload, then maneuver again. So conceptually, you just put a satellite into an orbit and your enemy doesn't know exactly what orbit its in. I'm sure eventually they would find it, but the military still wants stuff like that. Another example is the ability to grab a satellite and bring it back to Earth. To my knowledge, this was only ever used with the "long-duration exposure facility" because it'd probably be considered an act of war to steal another country's satellites but here again, it's the kind of thing the military would ask for.

kzrdude 5y ago
Isn't the shuttle so big that it would be easy to track and see it?
- enave3 5y ago
  yes, but no country can track a given object in LEO for its entire orbit (unless it's transmitting its position to another satellite). So the idea is that the shuttle launches with a secret payload, and every 90 minutes you see it pass overhead. This goes on for days or weeks. Eventually it lands. What happened? Well what you don't know is that on day 2, while it was over the Pacific and you weren't tracking it, it fired the OMS, deployed a payload, then fired the OMS again to return to it's previous orbit. There's a whole other satellite out there and you don't know about it until you find it by some other means. And eventually you will find it. But the military is happy to pay for that short window of subterfuge.

ddalex 5y ago

Likely snatching enemy satellites in a single orbit (i.e. launch, snatch sattelite, land, all in the same orbit) before enemy can even detect that the shuttle is up there.

gameswithgo 5y ago

No idea, but yes I assume other missions managed to use the full capabilities once it was big!

messe 5y ago

The one that had the biggest influence on the design of the shuttle was probably the plan to launch into a polar orbit, rendezvous with a satellite, capture it, and land as it swung around for the next orbit. This require massive cross-range capability, in order to be able to glide back to a suitable landing site in the US, putting lower limits on the size of the wings.

echelon 5y ago
The classified autonomous X-37 [1] has a cargo bay [2] and there are (were?) plans to scale it up to double the size to accommodate larger payloads and crewed missions [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37 [2] https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36440/this-is-our-first-look-at-the-secretive-x-37b-spaceplane-with-its-cargo-bay-doors-open https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36440/this-is-our-firs... [3] http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/aerospace-engineering/spacecraft-design/boeing-x-37c/ http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/aerospace-engineering/spa...
- spookthesunset 5y ago
  That X-37 photo in the wiki article had me go down the "payload fairing" rabbit hole. Still don't quite know what the "bubble wrap" is on the inside. I assume it is part insulation to protect from extreme heat and part, well, bubble wrap. According to wikipedia those things cost around $6 million to manufacture and spacex was the first to ever bother retrieving them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payload_fairing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payload_fairing
  - aksss 5y ago
    Gosh, the section on "Mission failures caused by payload fairings" is understandable but not something I've ever heard of before. The launch crew error of failing to remove two lanyards.. ugh. To be "that guy" must've sucked.
adolph 5y ago
Scott Manley has a wonderful explainer on it "The Most Important Space Shuttle Mission Never Happened": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q2i0eu35aY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q2i0eu35aY

count 5y ago

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1960/1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1960/1 HEXAGON KH-9