US Military’s Top Secret X-37B Shuttle Disappeared
Amatuer astronomers are enjoying a cat-and-mouse game with the US military in keeping track of its secret space plane, the X-37B. The X-37B was launched in April amid much publicity, but scant detail about its true use. In May, avid skywatcher Ted Molczan studied the X-37B’s orbit from his home in Toronto and said its behaviour suggested it was testing sensors for a range of new spy satellites. Since then, the X-37B been arguably the least-secret secret project on the planet, as fellow backyard astronomers joined in the scrutiny, aided by how-to video guides and apps such as the Simple Satellite Tracker. That is, they did until July 29, when the shuttle disappeared, causing all kinds of consternation and conspiracy theories about its fate.
The X-37B’s new track takes it on a six-day orbit of the Earth, as opposed to its original four-day orbit. Mr Molczan believes this may be another small piece to the puzzle about what role the shuttle may play in US military operations. “This small change of orbit may have been a test of OTV-1’s manoeuvring system, or a requirement of whatever payload may be aboard, or both,” he said in a release paper about Roberts’ X-37B find.
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