秘密軍事太空穿梭機著陸
西元2010年12月03日
Star Wars 2010: Secret X-37B - The Phantom Menace?
星球大戰 2010：秘密的X-37B - 魅影威脅？
西元2010年12月07日
神秘的X-37B機械人空天戰機自動駕駛回航地球Secretive X-37B Robot Space Plane Returns to Earth on Autopilot
By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com Managing Editor
posted: 03 December 2010
07:24 am ET
Translation by Autumnson Blog
After seven months in space, the U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B unmanned space plane returned to Earth today to wrap up a debut flight shrouded in secrecy.
經過七個月在太空後，美國空軍的秘密X-37B無人空天戰機今天回航地球，了結一籠罩着秘密的處女航行。
The robotic X-37B space plane landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to end its maiden voyage. The space plane, also known as Orbital Test Vehicle 1, glided back to Earth over the Pacific Ocean before landing at the revamped Vandenberg runway at about 1:16 a.m. PST (0916 GMT) today (Dec. 3).
機器人的X-37B太空飛機降落在加州范登堡空軍基地，完結它的處女航。亦被稱為軌道試驗飛行器 1號的空天飛機，在太平洋上空滑翔返回地球，於降落在改組後的范登堡空軍基地的跑道之前，約在12月3日今天1:16am太平洋標準時間（格林尼治標準時間 0916）。
"Today's landing culminates a successful mission based on close teamwork between the 30th Space Wing, Boeing and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office," said Lt Col Troy Giese, X-37B program manager from the AFRCO, which oversaw the mission. "We are very pleased that the program completed all the on-orbit objectives for the first mission."
In all, the X-37B space plane spent more than 220 days in orbit. Air Force officials said earlier this week that the X-37B could land anytime between Friday and Monday (Dec. 3 to Dec. 6).
The Air Force has kept the exact nature and cost of the X-37B's secretive mission a closely guarded secret, but some analysts and skywatchers have speculated that the spacecraft served as an unmanned orbital spy platform.
機器人太空無人機的長途飛行
Robot space drone's long flight
The Air Force launched the robot space plane atop an equally unmanned Atlas 5 rocket on April 22. Since then, the spacecraft has orbited Earth, at times tracked by meticulous skywatchers who first spotted the spacecraft in space using telescopes, then noticed its apparent manuevers to change orbits. [Video of the X-37B in space]
"This is a historical first, not only for Vandenberg Air Force Base, but for the Air Force and our nation to receive a recoverable spacecraft here and really take a step forward in advancing unmanned space flight," said 30th Space Wing commander Col. Richard Boltz in a statement before the landing.
The X-37B space drone is robotic winged spacecraft that looks in many ways like a miniature space shuttle. It was built by Boeing's Phantom Works Division in Seal Beach, Calif., and can fly long, extended missions because of its solar array power system, which allows it to stay in orbit for up to 270 days, Air Force officials have said.
Originally, NASA used the X-37B space plane as an experimental test bed until funding for the project ran out in 2004. The vehicle then passed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and was ultimately turned over to the Air Force in 2006.
X - 37B的神秘任務
X-37B's mystery mission
Air Force officials have said the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 is being used to demonstrate and test guidance, navigation and control systems, as well as evaluate autonomous landing techniques for winged spacecraft. Details about any experimental payloads on the spacecraft are classified, Air Force officials have said.
空軍官員說，X - 37B軌道試驗飛行器一號是被用於示範和測試指引、導航和控制系統，以及為有翼航天器評估自主著陸技術。任何在飛船上的實驗性載荷的細節被視為機密，空軍官員說。
Before the April launch of the Orbital Test Vehicle 1 flight, Gary Payton, Air Force deputy undersecretary of space programs, said that the X-37B is not a space weapon.
在4月發射軌道試驗飛行器一號的飛行之前，太空計劃的空軍副部長加里佩頓說，X - 37B不是一件空間武器。
"I don't know how this could be called a weaponization of space," Payton told reporters at the time. "Fundamentally, it's just an updated version of the space shuttle kinds of activities in space."
“我不知道這到底怎麼能叫做太空武器化，”佩頓告訴當時的記者。 “根本上講，它只是在空間的一件更新版本的太空穿梭機種類的活動。”
But some facts about the X-37B spacecraft are well known.
但一些有關X - 37B飛船的事實是眾所周知的。
For example, the spacecraft has two wings, a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed and black heat-resistant tiles to withstand the searing hot temperatures of atmospheric re-entry.
例如飛船有兩隻翼，有一載荷艙約是卡車床的大小，和黑色隔熱瓦去抵禦在重返大氣層時的灼熱高溫。
SPACE.com graphic of the X-37B depicts the characteristics and capabilities of the unmanned space plane.
The X-37B is about 29 feet (9 meters) long and has a wingspan of just over 14 feet (4 meters) across. It stands just over 9 1/2 feet (3 meters) tall and weighs nearly 11,000 pounds (about 5,000 kg).
The X-37B launches like a rocket and glides back to Earth like NASA's space shuttles, but instead of a single tail fin at the rear, the X-37B has two stabilizers, called "ruddervators," sprouting up in a "V" shape.
The vehicle was also equipped with a destruct mechanism, so Air Force officials could destroy it by remote control if it veered off course while gliding over the Pacific Ocean toward the Vandenberg Air Force Base.
機器人太空飛機的回歸
Robot space plane's return
To prepare for the mini-shuttle's landing, a huge team of workers had to replace some 658 steel along the along the centerline of Vandenberg 15,000-foot (4,572-meter) runway because the older ones could pose a hazard to the X-37B vehicle's tires, according to the Santa Maria Times newspaper.
The Air Force has already ordered a second X-37B, the Orbital Test Vehicle 2, which is slated to launch on another test flight sometime in the spring of 2011.
But for now, Air Force officials said they were ecstatic to see the successful return of the first X-37B spacecraft.
"With it being such a unique mission for the base, it is exciting to be a part of this historic landing," said Capt. Dariusz Wudarzewski, 2nd ROPS range operations commander. "For how long we have been working on it, I think everyone is really excited to see it culminate."
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/secret-x-37b-robot-space-plane-landing-101203.html
美軍太空飛機X-37B繞地球飛行7個月返回地面
2010年12月04日 11:33
中新網12月4日電 據外媒報道，美國空軍的一架太空飛機在圍繞地球飛行七個多月之後安全返回地面。
這架X-37B無人駕駛太空飛機在當地時間12月3日淩晨1點16分降落在美國加州的一個空軍基地。X-37B能夠重返大氣層，並且在完全沒有協助的情況下著陸。但是，美國空軍沒有透露飛機的具體用途，也沒有說明這次飛行所攜帶的物品。
X-37B機長9米，翼展4.5米，機尾裝有一個用來變軌的大發動機。這次X-37B安全著陸是太空飛機首次自主重返大氣層，創下了新的紀錄。對美國太空計劃的發展具有重要意義。
另據報道，今年4月22日，一枚“阿特拉斯-5”型運載火箭在佛羅裏達州卡納維拉爾角空軍基地發射升空，將X-37B送入太空。負責監控其飛行任務的是位於科羅拉多州斯普林斯的美國空軍航太司令部。此後，在長達數月的飛行任務期內，不斷有太空愛好者觀測到X-37B的蹤跡，但美軍一直避而不談。
X-37B的官方正式名稱為“軌道測試飛行器”，是美國國家航空航太局于1999年立項研發的。該項目原本用於測試下一代宇宙飛船的相關技術，但後來被美國軍方接管。2004年，X-37B項目被轉交給美國國防部高級研究計劃局，後又交給空軍部下屬快速反應能力辦公室，項目性質也由公開轉為地下。
來源：中國新聞網
http://www.cns.hk:89/gj/2010/12-04/2700070.shtml
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