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posted by mrpg on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:06PM   Printer-friendly

A robotic space plane is flying in Low Earth orbit and nobody knows why.

While intelligence gathering is widely regarded as the best explanation, no one can say for certain what it could be.

"That question implies that it has a single, rational mission. And I don't think it does," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org.

[...] The Secure World Foundation, a non-profit based in Broomfield, Colo., published a 2010 report on the craft. It speculated the space plane's most likely purpose was for intelligence gathering and said the vessel had a low probability of other uses, such as satellite repair.

Whatever its real purpose, the X-37B has very real capabilities. It travels low in orbit, staying around 177 to 804 kilometres above the Earth at a cruising speed of about 17,500mph (28,163kph).


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by charon on Friday December 02 2016, @09:55PM

    by charon (4058) on Friday December 02 2016, @09:55PM (#28869) Journal

    You can't stop me from commenting.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by paulej72 on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:13PM

      by paulej72 (58) on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:13PM (#28897) Journal
      now you broke my broken page. I was trying to track down this issue. :P
      --
      Team Leader for SN Development Dev Server [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 3, Touché) by charon on Monday December 05 2016, @05:21AM

        by charon (4058) on Monday December 05 2016, @05:21AM (#28965) Journal

        This one was never broken. for some reason it was only the Star Wars one and The Thread that were broken.