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The Military NASA

Air Force To Take Over Two Ex-Shuttle Hangers In Florida For Its X-37B Program 48

schwit1 writes In an effort to find tenants for its facilities, the Kennedy Space Center is going to rent two former shuttle processing hangers to Boeing for the Air Force's X-37B program. "NASA built three Orbiter Processing Facilities, or OPFs, to service its space shuttle fleet between missions. All three are located next to the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at the Florida spaceport where Apollo Saturn 5 moon rockets and space shuttles were 'stacked' for launch. Under an agreement with NASA, Boeing will modify OPF bays 1 and 2 for the X-37B program, completing upgrades by the end of the year. The company already has an agreement with NASA to use OPF-3 and the shuttle engine shop in the VAB to assemble its CST-100 commercial crew craft being built to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The company says up to six capsules can be processed in the facility at the same time."
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Air Force To Take Over Two Ex-Shuttle Hangers In Florida For Its X-37B Program

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  • HangArs (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 09, 2014 @07:34PM (#48107959)

    It's hangars, for god's sake. Even tfa says so, which suggests the editor a) didn't read it and/or b) doesn't know the difference. Let me go see if I have some hangers in my closet.

    • Today is spelling optional day. Besides, the PDP-11 that runs Slashdot doesn't have a spell checker (or Unicode).

      Anyway, I'm wondering when the Air Force plans on putting people in that thing. There are drawings floating around that have seating for, IIRC, up to five astronauts. They've got to be considering it.

      • Link [gizmag.com].

        Further, the Slashdot PDP-11 doesn't have an editing capability.

        Amazing.

      • by ogdenk ( 712300 )

        Besides, the PDP-11 that runs Slashdot doesn't have a spell checker (or Unicode).

        Pretty sure you could get a spellchecker and VI to run well under 2.11BSD. Maybe even 7th Edition. You might be right on the Unicode aspect.

        Anyway, I'm wondering when the Air Force plans on putting people in that thing. There are drawings floating around that have seating for, IIRC, up to five astronauts. They've got to be considering it.

        It'll probably end up being 2 astronauts and a bunch of ammo/missiles.

        • Once Slashdot ditches the Therac-25 system there's a chance the mobile site might not suck so hard.

          • by ogdenk ( 712300 )

            Therac-25? LOL For a second there I thought that was totally made up. Turns out the Therac 25 was a radiotherapy machine responsible for cooking several patients due to horrible code. That's awesome. I learned something new today.

      • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        I don't think a spellchecker would catch hangers, after all it's a perfectly valid word.

      • Those plans were for the X-37C, which would have been a version of the X-37B that would be nearly twice as large. And yes, the plans would include a pressurized compartment that would hold up to six occupants.

        Mind you, the Air Force has always had plans of putting up some kind of orbiting platform ever since the 1960's. The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (using Gemini capsules and the Titan II) was actually going to be launched and occupied by a group of USAF-trained astronauts, but it was eventually kille
    • Re: HangArs (Score:5, Funny)

      by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Friday October 10, 2014 @03:38AM (#48109555)
      There used to be a hanger for Space Shuttles. I believe it used to be called the External Tank. You could conveniently hang your shuttle onto it. ;-)
    • by Rxke ( 644923 )

      https://drive.google.com/file/... [google.com]

      that's a shuttle hanger....

    • No, they plan to hang the X37-B's out to dry after washing them.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    The only parts of the government that seem to be able to set goals and accomplish them.

  • by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Thursday October 09, 2014 @09:00PM (#48108355)

    With congress in reckless cut everything sequestration mode, this will help NASA hold onto the infrastructure and programs that they already have. Even though it involves mixing NASA with the military once again.

    • The military never left. Remember the Air Force only Shuttle launches [airspacemag.com]?

      • They still have Canaveral Air Force Base. The Air Force were to get two shuttles of their own and built a launchpad out at Vandenburg AFB in California. Unfortunately funding was cut after they spent the money building the launchpad. So there were those times when they borrowed a shuttle or two from NASA.

  • NASA is renting hangar space to the Air Force, on a co-located patch of ground, for the USAF to store and maintain its space vehicles.
    Please tell me why optimal use of existing facilities is 'news'?

    Do the words 'Cape Canaveral Air Force Station' mean anything to you?
    • by Jahoda ( 2715225 )
      You're right. Certainly no one reading Slashdot is interested in NASA-related events.
      • NASA related is fine. This is merely building management.

        Go back 70 years. "NASA sharing runway space with Langley AFB". Whoop-de-do.
    • too much public view over there. For a time I worked with the folks down at Hanger A-F on RSRM recovery and most of those hangars are well past it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Livius ( 318358 )

      Please tell me why optimal use of existing facilities is 'news'?

      Government being efficient is quite newsworthy.

  • by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Friday October 10, 2014 @07:38AM (#48110239) Journal

    http://grammarist.com/usage/ha... [grammarist.com]

    How does one get the job of "editor" exactly?

    • http://grammarist.com/usage/ha... [grammarist.com]

      How does one get the job of "editor" exactly?

      It's only two more steps than those required to get an insightful post on Slashdot:

      1. Forget Everything you know
      2. Loudly opine on everything you think you know
      3. Sensationalize everything
      4. ????
      5. Profit

    • How does one get the job of "editor"

      Perhaps it is a punishment for not using all those moderator points.
      --
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