Former shuttle hangars will soon host classified X-37B program
Boeing's X-37B spaceplane is designed to launch like a satellite and land like a plane. Photo Credit: Boeing
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla — NASA has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Air Force’s highly-classified spaceplane program, X-37B, for the use of Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) Bays 1 and 2 at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to process the X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) – for launch.
Boeing announced on Jan. 3 of this year that they intended to convert OPF-1 into “a facility that would enable the U.S. Air Force to efficiently land, recover, refurbish, and re-launch the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle,” but they provided few details about the effort. Now, nine months later, the agreement has officially been signed.
Boeing also has control of OPF-3, for which they signed a 15-year lease with Space Florida, the State of Florida’s organization tasked with maintaining Florida’s aerospace industry, back in October of 2011. Boeing plans to use OPF-3 to process the company’s CST-100 spacecraft, which is designed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
“Kennedy is positioning itself for the future, transitioning to a multi-user launch facility for both commercial and government customers, while embarking on NASA’s new deep-space exploration plans,” said Robert Cabana, director of Kennedy Space Center, in a press release about the agreement. “A dynamic infrastructure is taking shape, designed to host many kinds of spacecraft and rockets.”
Boeing plans to use Orbiter Processing Facility-1 (OPF-1) to service the X-37B (this is an image of nearby OPF-3). Photo Credit: Jim Siegel / SpaceFlight Insider
The OPF bays were built for use as space shuttle hangars, where NASA’s fleet of orbiters would undergo maintenance between flights. Bays 1 and 2 are connected, and OPF-3 is located just across the street. The facilities haven’t been used since the shuttles were moved to their new homes at museums and tourist destinations. According to the press release, NASA “currently does not have a mission requirement for the facilities” and thus the agreement “ensures the facilities will again be used for their originally-intended purpose — processing spacecraft.”
The bays will undergo renovations for the program, which are due to be completed in December of this year.
The X-37B OTV itself is a reusable unmanned spacecraft made to enter space aboard a rocket, specifically an Atlas V 501 booster, and then return to Earth and land as a spaceplane. It is about one-fourth the size of NASA’s space shuttle with a similar landing profile.
An Atlas V common core booster will carry the X-37B spaceplane into space. Photo Credit: NASA
Currently, the processing flow for the X-37B Program involves a launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) followed by a landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. If OPF-1 can process the spacecraft, it is possible that missions could land at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, rather than being shipped back from across the country.
The same press release said that the X-37B Program has also “conducted testing at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility to demonstrate that landing the vehicle at the former shuttle runway is a technically feasible option.”
So far, two X-37B vehicles have flown a total of three times from Cape Canaveral, all of which have been highly classified missions. The first one launched in April of 2010 and landed that December after 224 days in space.
The second X-37B vehicle broke the orbital endurance record for an unmanned reusable spacecraft with its flight in 2011. It departed in March of that year and returned in June of 2012 after 469 days in space.
Then the first X-37B vehicle was sent out again, in December of 2012. This third mission broke the orbital endurance record again in April of this year, and as of August it surpassed 600 days in orbit. The spacecraft is still in flight and no landing date has been given, nor has any further information about the nature of the extended mission.
“X-37 is doing great,” General William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command told Space.com in May of this year. “I can’t tell you what it’s doing, but it’s doing great.”
NASA’s top-secret spaceplane, X-37B, will now take up residence in OPF-1 and OPF-2 at Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force
To the public’s knowledge, the Air Force only has two X-37B vehicles. Theories about their purpose range from space-based surveillance to weaponry, though the United States signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967 and is therefore prohibited from placing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit. More benign theories include collecting data for NASA or simply testing new space technology.
The X-37 is derived from the Boeing-40 Space Maneuver Vehicle. The X-37 began in 1999 when NASA partnered with Boeing to develop a new orbital vehicle. The project was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2004, at which point it became classified.
NASA’s X-37A was tested a series of captive-carry and free flights in 2005 and 2006, for which it was launched aboard the Scaled Composites research aircraft White Knight One. Not long afterward, the program was transferred to the U.S. Air Force, who developed the X-37B variant that is being used today.
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Rae Botsford End
Rae Botsford End is a freelance writer and editor whose primary work currently is writing technical white papers, contributing to SFI, and working on a speculative fiction novel that she hopes to have published soon. Rae wanted an opportunity to report on the various space-related events in and around Florida's Space Coast and approached SFI's founder about the possibility. Rae now covers an array of subjects for our growing website.
This is great news for KSC. Although the Air Force was suppose to do this a year ago and put the project on hold because NASA was being difficult to work with and kept putting up red tape road blocks.
Now if NASA would let Blue Origin come to Kennedy, Maybe Brevard county will come out of the slump their in.