X moto xb374/5/2023 They crisscross each others' paths at thousands of meters per second. "They are in orbits which cross the equator about 90 degrees apart. Space analyst Jim Oberg, however, told BBC that this would be impossible. Just before the X-37B launched, BBC and Spacefllight Magazine published reports suggesting that the orbit of the vehicle is close enough to watch what's going on with China's Tiangong-1 space station. government since governments and amateurs alike can easily track the X-37B," the Daily Beast reported. "It would be very easy to trace that sort of activity back to the U.S. But, unless the plane is somehow conducting these nefarious activities from far away while not moving around very much, some suggest this is unlikely. "Changing a spacecraft's orbital plane requires a great amount of thrust - so using something like the X-37B as a bomber would mean changing its orbit to fly over targets, and that would eat up its limited fuel supply," Popular Mechanics stated, quoting University of Maryland professor Mark Lewis, a former Air Force chief scientist.Īnother idea is that the X-37B is, in the style of James Bond, supposed to take out other satellites that are making the U.S. While conspiracy theorists have jumped on this notion, Popular Mechanics dumped cold water on the idea. So what's the advantage of using a space plane to spy instead of a satellite? The plane likely can move to a region of interest faster than a satellite can, Business Week reported, although others have pointed out that the fuel requirements for doing this would likely be prohibitive. "X-37B is probably carrying prototype reconnaissance gear, for spying on the Middle East and other sensitive geopolitical regions," said. While the United States military has plenty of surveillance satellites in orbit, some people have suggested that the X-37B has high-tech monitoring gear designed to keep an eye on certain regions of Earth.
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