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Experimental USAF space plane breaks record for orbital spaceflight

techcrunch.com

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Re: Experimental USAF space plane breaks record for orbital spaceflight

#111

Post by colechristensen »

LeonM wrote: post #93
colechristensen wrote: post #16

Obvious missions for a long-mission mobile shuttle like this include * intercepting and deorbiting space junk * fixing friendly or sabotaging unfriendly operational satellites * future weapons platform for offense or defense (say intercepting ground-launched sat-killing missiles) * on-demand surveillance (with ordinary spy satellites you have to wait until your orbit is in the right spot, adversaries will know when y…

> Prep for mining activities further out AFAIK there is not a single element that is valuable enough to offset the gigantic costs of mining in space and moving bulk back to earth. The economics just don't work.

These guys think differently. https://www.planetaryresources.com

Re: Experimental USAF space plane breaks record for orbital spaceflight

#112

Post by gdy »

dmix wrote: post #76
gdy wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the US started weaponizing space long before it began accusing China and Russia of doing the same.

A hypersonic missile is far more concerning than this. If we're talking about offensive capabilities... Besides that's hardly a surprising statement. Of course they are. And Space Force isn't the start of some new space warfare agenda. It's just formalizing and likely just going to add administrative distractions for existing well-funded and productive engineering teams.

The only reason Russia spends money on hypersonic missiles is continuous enhancement of American missile defense system threatening to end mutually assured destruction

Re: Experimental USAF space plane breaks record for orbital spaceflight

#113

Post by GhettoMaestro »

dang wrote: post #50
GhettoMaestro wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hold still while I freedom you!

Could you please review the site guidelines and not post unsubstantive comments to HN? We ban accounts that repeatedly do that because we're trying for a bit better than internet default here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Sorry - I did not mean to contribute to BS drive-by comments. I will refrain from doing so in the future.

Apologies.

Re: Experimental USAF space plane breaks record for orbital spaceflight

#114

Post by kanox »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #30
kanox wrote: post #22

> breaks record of orbital spaceflight It broke it's own record of "time-in-orbit" and as far as spaceflight records go this is one of the least relevant. Once a spacecraft gets to orbit it is very easy to stay there almost indefinitely. Hell, the ISS breaks the record for "continuous habitation in orbit" every day.

This one changes orbits. Multiple times per mission.

Almost all spacecraft carry propulsion and can change their orbit. There are even known cases of spysats deliberately shadowing comsats.
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