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NASA asked several former SR-71A staffers to help secret restart

327 points · 403 comments · ilamont

  1. walrus01 · · focus · HN ↗
    I'd be more astonished if there isn't something superior to the SR71 (likely unmanned) that has been flying around at night from facilities like Groom Lake for years. Look at how long the RQ180 was flying around in semi-public and known about before it became seen in daylight by plane spotters in Greece. And a long time before that there were public relations approved photos of the Lockheed Martin Polecat.

    There were a series of extremely public quotations from senior DoD officially recently about how they plan to aggressively retire the Global Hawk program (which is a mostly non stealth aircraft), reading between the lines it's because they have something much better.

    edit: for those who haven&#x27;t seen the RQ180: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?client=firefox-b-d&amp;q=RQ180+greece" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?client=firefox-b-d&amp;q=RQ180+gre...

    edit 2 (apologies for the X link): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;MechDesignxyz&#x2F;status&#x2F;2041281689838584193" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;MechDesignxyz&#x2F;status&#x2F;2041281689838584193

    1. hilsdev · · focus · HN ↗
      I suspect everything comparable of late has been orbital, which begs the question what is it they’re worried about with orbital? Satellite warfare is already accelerating if the rumors are true, is it that this is untouchable still? Is there some new camera sensor where eliminating that extra atmospheric diffraction or slowing down (lol) is needed?
      1. morkalork · · focus · HN ↗
        Well there&#x27;s also the X-37B Orbital &quot;Test Vehicle&quot; that performs some long-run missions. Satellite warfare? Observation instrument tests? Who knows!
        1. somat · · focus · HN ↗
          My theory is satellite retrieval, Not ours, theirs. Play the long game, year two of a three year mission, do a little unannounced orbital dance, somebody&#x27;s spy satellite has a unexpected failure, while really it is now in the rf shielded environment of the x-37&#x27;s payload bay. Year three, bring it down for study.

          Yeah, probably way to much science fiction there, way too many things would go wrong, and spy satellites tend to have huge antenna have fun trying to stuff that in a rather small payload bay. However... One of the space shuttle mission profiles was to deorbit a satellite. Officially, the space shuttle never did this. But I think the airforce really liked the idea and wanted to retain the capability.

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