Take a look at the photos on the page.
The innovative carrier plane used to air launch SpaceShipOne has a new mission. At the Mojave, California inland spaceport, the White Knight mothership has been involved in fit and high-speed taxi checks with a new passenger – the X-37, an unpiloted, reusable spaceplane.
The White Knight/X-37 combination has undergone a set of recent ground evaluations, including high-speed taxi testing this week.
Designed by Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, the White Knight was utilized to haul SpaceShipOne to altitude and then released the piloted rocketplane for its record-setting suborbital treks, including the snagging of the high-stakes $10 million Ansari X Prize last year.
In its new role, the White Knight is being readied to carry the Boeing, Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NASA-supported vehicle skyward. No official word yet on when the twosome will take to the air, or what is the timeframe for the first drop test of the X-37 using the White Knight.
Note that the thing’s mounted underneath White Knight. Now, it’s possible that they fabbed new mount points on WK in order to make this possible, or that Boeing built the X-37 with mount locations on the WK in mind, or that Rutan designed the WK with reconfigurable mount points in order handle dropping a wide variety of aircraft. I’m thinking number 3 is the most likely.
scr4
May 28, 2005, 8:10am
2
Actually, it’s not for NASA:
Late last year, NASA transferred its X-37 technology demonstration program to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
… X-37 was dealt a further setback last year when a NASA review concluded that the program was not a good fit with the agency’s new space exploration agenda.
Sometimes I really miss living in Lancaster.
Of course, they’ve never painted over the NASA meatball on the side.
Which reminds me: Have NASA reserved all of the N___NA registration numbers?