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Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#11

Post by jrockway »

shockinglytrue wrote: post #3

The press around the X-37B continues to perplex, it's particularly disappointing to see this "super secret but let's talk about it constantly" article using the word "very" 3 times. I think it was drilled into me by the age of 12 to avoid "very" in written English in order not to obviously oversell, and yet here it is from a professional writer working for the BBC

Newspapers tend to write for a very low reading level. Flourish is nice for readers of a long novel (for whom the words are as important as the story itself), but the goal here is for as many people to understand the content as possible. That includes people that don't natively speak English, children, etc.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#12

Post by chrisseaton »

shockinglytrue wrote: post #3

The press around the X-37B continues to perplex, it's particularly disappointing to see this "super secret but let's talk about it constantly" article using the word "very" 3 times. I think it was drilled into me by the age of 12 to avoid "very" in written English in order not to obviously oversell, and yet here it is from a professional writer working for the BBC

In general the BBC prioritises simple writing, a reasonably low reading level, and common words to make it as accessible as possible. They don't pay much attention to ideas of artistic writing and they aren't looking to use a different adverb or adjective every time for the whimsical sake of it. It's a public news service, not a mid-atlantic magazine.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#14

Post by Rebelgecko »

chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Did this mission not transfer to the new Space Force? If not, what kind of things are they doing?

The Space Force is now responsible for all DOD launches. However I believe that the payload itself still belongs to the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. Most of the people operating it may be "on loan" to the Space Force, but aren't actually members yet (I think there's only ~100 people so far in the Space Force)

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#15

Post by mhh__ »

shockinglytrue wrote: post #5
chrisseaton wrote: post #2

Did this mission not transfer to the new Space Force? If not, what kind of things are they doing?

Given the frequency and consistency of narrative with which it appears in the press, at this stage I'm convinced it's an empty UAV used entirely for some marketing purpose

It's spending months in space, I don't think it's for marketing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j56s46e97Lo

Based on what this talk indicates, the US Government is doing some questionable(...) things in terms of signals intelligence in space.

We probably won't know what X37-B is doing in space for years but I imagine they will have at least tried to do some big brother exercises. The US/Western Intelligence community effectively treats all communications as fair game - they always have (e.g. MI5 were capturing encryption keys from neutral embassies using microphones in the ~50/60s) they just possess the means to do it efficiently at large scale now.

I imagine a large part of its mission is also just testing military equipment that can't go on the ISS but that's not as sexy.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#17

Post by pengaru »

mhh__ wrote: post #16
pengaru wrote: post #4

"power-beaming technology"

Sarcasm? Even uBeam does work, it's just not very efficient

I have no doubts beamed-power is possible, I just assume it's effectively an energy weapon and the real magic is at the receiving end harnessing the power without getting destroyed.

But if you aim it somewhere other than the receiver, it's a weapon, no?

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#18

Post by lifeisstillgood »

Sat here in lockdown, I have just rewatched Matt Damon's The Martian and yes, we want to go up and out. I am so glad someone is still trying.

I am also blown away by the American Federal budget - this is a classified military space program. How much does one of those cost ?!

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#19

Post by zrail »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #18

Sat here in lockdown, I have just rewatched Matt Damon's The Martian and yes, we want to go up and out. I am so glad someone is still trying. I am also blown away by the American Federal budget - this is a classified military space program . How much does one of those cost ?!

The budget is classified. One can assume $texas levels of money.

Re: Space Plane: Mysterious US military aircraft launches

#20

Post by zrail »

jrockway wrote: post #11
shockinglytrue wrote: post #3

The press around the X-37B continues to perplex, it's particularly disappointing to see this "super secret but let's talk about it constantly" article using the word "very" 3 times. I think it was drilled into me by the age of 12 to avoid "very" in written English in order not to obviously oversell, and yet here it is from a professional writer working for the BBC

Newspapers tend to write for a very low reading level. Flourish is nice for readers of a long novel (for whom the words are as important as the story itself), but the goal here is for as many people to understand the content as possible. That includes people that don't natively speak English, children, etc.

> Newspapers tend to write for a very low reading level.

I see what you did there.

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