Amateur Astronomers Spy on Air Force's Secret Mini Space Plane

By Nancy Atkinson - May 25, 2010 at 9:36 AM UTC | Space Policy
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The US Air Force's unmanned mini space shuttle has been located and tracked in orbit by a contingent of amateur astronomers, and now you can see the X37-B for yourself.

The spaceplane was spotted independently by amateur satellite watchers Greg Roberts of Cape Town, South Africa, and Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Canada, on May 20. Another satellite watcher, Ted Molczan, of Toronto, Canada was then able to calculate the spacecraft's actual orbit. Then, from that data, Fetter was able to find the X37-B again the following night and photograph it flying across the starry sky. See more images on

Spaceweather.com,

and this movie of the X37-B in orbit, as seen by Fetter.

Click here to find out use Spaceweather.com's satellite tracking tool

to find out if the X37-B will be flying over your backyard.

They also have

an iPhone app.

Spotters say the space plane is about as bright as some of the stars in the Big Dipper, at +2.8 magnitude or so.

If you capture an image of the X37-B in orbit,

send it to us,

or submit it on

Spaceweather.com's site.

Just what is the mission of this secret mini space shuttle? There's been lots of speculation, but

read our previous article based on facts here.

Source:

Spaceweather.com

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com