In an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel on April 23, Director General of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin speculated that the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) could be used for sinister deployments, reported TASS. “It may carry some kind of reconnaissance tools or weapons of mass destruction. This is a new category of carriers of mass destruction weapons. Attacks from space pose the most serious danger,” said Rogozin.
“We do not have any intelligible information from the United States about the purpose and technical capabilities of this device,” he further declared.
According to Rogozin, the Russian side believes that the United States is trying to launch weapons into space with the help of the Boeing X-37, RT wrote.
RT quoted Rogozin as saying: “‘One must keep in mind that the destruction of a foreign spacecraft means World War III. It’s a casus belli, and there’s no doubt about that,’ Rogozin said. Concerning Washington’s announced decision to stop anti-satellite missile tests, Rogozin commented that the U.S. is now ‘pretending to be doves,’ because it had already conducted all the necessary tests. ‘This move should, therefore, be strictly viewed as propaganda,’ he said,” reported RT. (https://www.rt.com/russia/554392-rogozin-satellites-world-war/)
The Boeing X-37 (aka X-37B) was built by NASA and was later transferred to control by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Space Force. It is a reusable robotic spacecraft, with an overall design very similar to the Space Shuttle, but has smaller wings and no windows. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth’s atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane.
The USAF website describes the craft: “The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, is an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force. The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold; reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth…. The X-37B is the first vehicle since NASA’s Shuttle Orbiter with the ability to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis, but with an on-orbit time of 270 days or greater, the X-37B can stay in space for much longer.
“Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, advanced propulsion systems, advanced materials and autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing.” (https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104539/x-37b-orbital-test-vehicle/)
