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On 29 November 2011, the U.S. Air Force announced that it would extend USA-226 beyond the 270-day baseline duration. [69] In April 2012, General William L. Shelton of the Air Force Space Command declared the ongoing mission a "spectacular success". [70] On 30 May 2012, the Air Force stated that the X-37B would land at Vandenberg AFB in June 2012.
The Air Force expected to use the Space Shuttle to launch large satellites, and required it to be capable of lifting 29,000 kg (65,000 lb) to an eastward LEO or 18,000 kg (40,000 lb) into a polar orbit. The satellite designs also required that the Space Shuttle have a 4.6 by 18 m (15 by 60 ft) payload bay.
In the mid-1960s the US Air Force conducted a series of classified studies on next-generation space transportation systems. Among their many goals, the new launchers were intended to support a continued crewed military presence in space, and so needed to dramatically lower the cost of launches and increase launch rates.
Dimensions; Length: 37.237 m (122.17 ft) ... The Space Shuttle orbiter is the spaceplane component ... Final assembly was carried out at United States Air Force Plant ...
The first flight began on April 22, 2010, and saw the first X-37B remain in orbit for a total of 224 days. The second flight, which was the second X-37B's inaugural mission, began on March 5, 2011 ...
In 1972, Vandenberg AFB was chosen as the western launch site for Air Force shuttle launches. Use of SLC-6 was approved in 1975, and re-construction of the former MOL launch facility occurred between January 1979 and July 1986 as SLC-6 was rebuilt to accommodate the space shuttle. [8] There were several reasons for using SLC-6: [7]
The Approach and Landing Tests were a series of taxi and flight trials of the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise, conducted at Edwards Air Force Base in 1977. They verified the shuttle's flight characteristics when mated to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and when flying on its own, prior to the Shuttle system becoming operational.
The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V, the Space Shuttle and the Space Launch System, and stack them vertically onto one of three mobile launcher platforms used by NASA.