A Secret Government Spaceship is Circling the Earth

[Watchman]

A Secret Government Spaceship is Circling the Earth

The US government recently launched a secret space plane called the X-37B. You’ve probably never heard about it and that’s because nobody is really talking about it.

We do know that the X-37B was launched on April 22, 2010. It was originally a NASA project in 1999, but was transferred to the department of defense in 2004. It looks very similar the space shuttle, but it’s unmanned and about a quarter of the size. It also operates very similar to the space shuttle, it is launched by powerful rockets and it lands like an airplane. It has a small cargo bay, about the size of a pickup truck bed.

For safety and security, a little over 14000 space objects are cataloged and tracked. The objects include satellites, debris and rocket bodies. Tracking these objects reduces the chance of a collision between them. In fact, there are a few public websites that let you view this information, some will even plot satellites on a map so you can try to spot them when they’re over your area. The location and orbit of the X-37B spacecraft has not been announced by the government.

However, a group of amateur astronomers and sky watchers believe they have enough sightings to identify the craft and it’s orbit. The space plane has been tough to spot since it seems to be operating in a low orbit, similar to the height of military spy satellites. There are a lot of satellites in the sky, 75 military satellites plus 15 search and rescue; 37 gps and 19 Navy navigation satellites. Then, there are thousands of other satellites for communications, science and entertainment uses.

China and Iran are both on edge about what this space plane is capable of. According to China, it may signal the start of a space arms race.

Experts believe the X-37B is just another spy plane, except it can stay in the air for 270 days before returning for fuel. The sky watchers who are tracking the space plane have seen it over Iraq and Afghanistan and believe it is currently testing surveillance equipment. Because it can return to earth and be redeployed very quickly, it’s likely that it will serve a number of different roles as needed.

As for the name, it’s just a test plane series number. For example, the X-24A was the model of the plane used in 1963 to test the re-entry heat-shields that would end up on the bottom of modern day space shuttles.

When the X-37B does return to earth, it will land on a runway in California. If it veers too far off course, it will self destruct. Seriously.

 

[aurvandil]

There is quite a lot of this on UFO hunters on Discovery Channel. It is supposed to be based out of the famous Area 51. There was an episode when they took telephoto lens pictures of the base and found a special hanger which is almost 3 football fields large. Also of interest are the passenger planes which fly between the Las Vegas airport and the base at Area 51.

The craft itself is supposed to be black and triange shaped. Top speed is unknown but based on the seismograph readings, it is easily capable of travelling at speeds of over Mach 3+. The pattern of the sonic boom suggest that it uses a kind of ramjet technology which is not supposed to even exisit. The exotic part of the theory is that this ramjet and other related technologies is supposed to have been reverse engineered from recovered ailen spacecraft.

The size of the craft is huge based on eyewitness sightings. Unlike conventional aircraft, the size makes it look more like a spaceship than a spy plane.

Go check it out on UFO hunters on Dsicovery Channel. What I like about the series is the way the investigation between eipsode are interconnected to tell a coherent story unlike the treatment in other series where they hop from sighting to sighting.

Also of interest is SG1 which is currently showing on SciFi Channel. It is one of the longest running sci fi series and had strong support from the US military. It presents an interesting What-If exploration of what would happen if the US government had indeed recovered ailen technology and made contacts with ailens. The interesting part is that this is explored over 7 seasons, making it the most extensive TV treatment of the subject ever.