Boeing Suggests Possible Manned Version of the X-37B Space Plane 87
garymortimer writes with an article in sUAS News. From the article: "A Boeing chief has suggested that the company's mysterious unmanned space-plane, called X-37B, developed for the US Air Force, could be scaled up and modified to carry astronauts. The company's X-37B project chief Art Grantz revealed that at least two more versions of the 9-meter long space-plane are under investigation – one of which involves adding a crew to a much-enlarged version of the space drone, New Scientist reported. If built, the new version would give the US back its ability to shuttle people to the International Space Station."
Re:Let's try actually staying in space this time. (Score:2, Interesting)
The wings weren't a problem for the shuttle.
Both shuttle losses were fundamentally caused by the wings falling off. A capsule could have handled the g-forces imposed on Columbia or Challenger without breaking up, whereas a relatlvely small force was enough to break the wings off of the fuselage (not to mention separate the crew compartment from the payload bay), at which point the crew were doomed. A significant portion of the shuttle ascent trajectory design was based around making sure the wings didn't fall off even in nominal flight.
The X37B has none of those problems. it sits atop of the main fuel tank, and only has maneuvering thrusters, no main engines that need to be repaired.
And the wings will probably still fall off if it separates under a high dynamic pressure due to an abort or a booster malfunction, and if that happens the crew will still die unless they have ejection seats. I've never seen a non-insane launch escape system proposed for a winged booster other than ejection seats.
Re:Let's try actually staying in space this time. (Score:2, Interesting)
The wings and the fuse and all the rest were indeed a problem with the shuttle, because they amounted to dead weight and reduced the lifting capacity by quite a bit.
Wrong the body of the shuttle generates lift so it needs less fuel to reach orbit. After the shuttle launches it performs a roll maneuver. More of the engine power is used to achieve orbital velocity and not elevation. The body of the craft creates lift. This increases the amount of mass that the shuttle can send into orbit.
http://stason.org/TULARC/science-engineering/space/53-Why-does-the-shuttle-roll-just-after-liftoff.html
Second on reentry, the wings produce a hole in plasma that can be used to communicate with satellites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_blackout