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NASA鈥檚 space shuttle may have been retired, but the US might one day fly astronauts to orbit in its own reusable spaceplane. The X-37B drone could be redesigned to carry up to six people into space.
The idea was mooted by Art Grantz, an engineer at Boeing, which built the X-37B. Speaking at the Space 2011 conference in Long Beach, California, on 29 September, Grantz revealed detailed designs showing how an enlarged version of the experimental spacecraft could accommodate a crew compartment.
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The current spaceplane is a 9-metre-long delta-winged craft that looks like a small, windowless and snub-nosed version of the space shuttle. Launched to orbit on an Atlas V rocket, it manoeuvres in space with small thrusters and glides back to Earth for an unpowered landing. So far, it has completed one classified eight-month space mission for the US air force. A second vehicle, launched in March, is still in orbit on another classified task.
Success has encouraged Boeing to develop the design further, says Grantz. The firm wants to scale up the design to 14.3 metres in length, allowing large payloads to be delivered to the International Space Station. If that works, a 鈥渉uman-carrying derivative鈥� could be developed. Grantz showed designs for a variant called X-37C, with a 6-person pressurised crew compartment ensconced in the payload bay. Optionally, he says, the crew could fly the craft themselves rather than allow autonomous flight.
鈥淎 6-astronaut pressurised crew compartment would be ensconced in the spaceplane鈥檚 payload bay鈥�
For its part, NASA is already part-funding development of a rocket capsule from Boeing, which could anchor the space agency鈥檚 next-generation crewed spaceflight programme.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had no formal proposal on [Boeing鈥檚] X-37 derivative,鈥� says NASA spokesman James Hartfield. 鈥淏ut there will be opportunities in future for additional proposals.鈥�