Before you read this, please understand that I have no special insight into any recent current events. This is simply an observation made from commonly available information and some mathematical curiosity.

Not long ago I was talking about the X-37B, and mentioned that it would make the perfect spy satellite. The biggest flaw a conventional spy satellite has is its inability to change its orbit. Any significant orbit change by a satellite would require a large amount of fuel and is generally unfeasible. To put it simply, wherever a rocket leaves a satellite, that’s where it’s going to stay.

This means that  anyone with a few friends across the world a cheap telescope and a basic calculator can know precisely when and where a spy satellite is going to be and what it is going to see. To put it simply, the bad guys will know when to go inside.

The X-37B could change the game because it can make several impressively large changes to its orbit. This means we can now catch the bad people taking out their garbage since the intelligence gathering platform is now arriving earlier (or later) than they had predicted.

Now, without getting too crazy into the technical elements that describe the orbit of a satellite, there is such a thing called “Inclination” (i). The more “inclined” an orbit is, the further north and south a satellite will travel on a map of the world. (I’m doing some serious glossing over of certain concepts and using casual terms…) A satellite with an orbit inclined five degrees will travel five degrees north and south of the equator. An orbit of 10 degrees will take a satellite… you guessed it, ten degrees north and south of the equator.

We know for a fact that the X-37B had an orbit inclined at 40 degrees,  putting it within easy reach of Air Force tracking stations. It also put it over Pakistan. The X-37B was put into orbit for nearly six months as we were gathering information on Osama Bin Laden who we believed was in: Pakistan! It also performed several orbit changing maneuvers during that six month orbit.

Gathering intelligence in this case is what the X-37B is uniquely suited for. We have a highly alert and intelligent target who is working hard to avoid surveillance. But with the X-37B we are able to rapidly put an intelligence gathering platform over the target’s head based on incoming information. This allows us to alter the time of day we observe the target area and then maintain the element of surprise in regards to when we view said target.

Beautiful.

Do I have any evidence to back up the theory that X-37B was used to gather intel on the recently-deceased terrorist leader? No, but I do have math and dates that line up well.

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