So what the fuck is this thing doing?

This is the correct answer. It's primarily a reusable test platform more than anything else.

This. Also probably not just testing equipment but materials as well. How else are you going to figure out how things like fabric, plastics, special alloys and even stuff like ink and paint will hold up to the vacuum, UV light and radiation of space.

Makes sense. It probably tests stuff that would either be too dangerous, expensive, or secret to just send up to the ISS

What if they're taking money into space and back so they can create a reserve of space cash?

funnily enough, the real bluepilled answer to this shit is that it's all money laundering or embezzlement/ jews / diversity budget.

we've got some really spooky shit up our sleeves

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Oh i dont doubt that there is a significant amount that goes to actual programs. but thats all better hidden.

money laundering happens on the public side, legally. the black budget is where shit gets done without bureaucracy. it just so happens that one-off R&D builds are very expensive, and affording to custom building R&D kit al the time is a unique American strength.

t. procurement manager

america is 22 trillion dollars in debt and you want me to believe that this is anything more than corruption? yeah fucking right.

50% of the debt is held by individual US citizens

so the US cant even afford to pay its own people? and that somehow makes it better? pathetic.

Thats....thats not how that works.
Do you not understand basic fucking economics or do you default to "taxes and debt=100% bad"

wasting taxpayer money.

Other countries, US citizens in the form of bonds and even the government itself can buy bonds and invest in the US government, this is what our national debt is, they give the government the money to do shit in the hopes of seeing returns with intrest. Like a reverse bank almost, the people and other countries loan the US money. This only becomes a problem when the US cant pay back its loans, which is not anywhere near the reality, we have some of the best track records of any country for investors to see returns.

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The only time there'd be a problem is if US citizens and foreign governments lost confidence in the US government and stopped buying bonds.

you just described whats happening. more and more countries are dropping the dollar.

Fucking retard, rising debt means more people are fucking investing with buying more bonds.
If people stopped buying US bonds cause the US couldnt pay them back, then it would be a problem, but thats literally not happening and you are just a retard who failed Econ in highschool.

>you just described whats happening
Not really, no. US bonds are considered a very reliable investment by anyone who knows anything about finance.

>more and more countries are dropping the dollar
Which is a completely separate situation from the US national debt, and mainly driven by how well the value of the dollar has been performing in the past 2 years or so compared to the national currencies of smaller states.

Test platform

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testing spacecraft components in orbit. in the space industry usually there's no way to examine components after they've been launched and brand new tech is prone to fail as correctly and fully simulating long term orbital conditions on earth to check equipment is nearly impossible.
this is why new satellites often use decades old components because they've been space-proven and shown to be reliable rather then try their luck with new shit, and also why satellites have fucktons of redundancy (2 sets of computers, 2 sets of engines, 2 sets of sun\star\earth trackers , 2 sets of every type of electronics board and so on with cross redundancy, essentially every time a satellite is launched it has inside most of it the components of two satellites).
this is also the reason why you often see satellites launch with new unproven systems in addition to their standard 2 redundant systems, to test said systems (like a satellite with chemical propulsion with an additional electric system added in to make sure it works before using it as the sole system on a satellite) or small cheap disposable purely technology demonstrator satellites .
this spaceplane allows allows the US gov to test components for long periods of time in open space and then return them to earth and examine the effects of being in orbit on them in a lab. with this they can build better,more reliable and longer lasting space hardware, unlike the entire civilian sector they can get complete analysis and feedback on any space system they want to test where's civilian components often fail and there's no way to determine why.

i expect it's cargo bay to remain in vaccum even after landing, i bet they put it in a vaccum chamber and examine the components there to not contaminate results by exposing them to atmosphere.

t.someone who works in the military and civilian space industries,not in US tho.

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they cant test secret military beamforming antennas ,radars and cameras on a civilian space station with russian crew members.
this is basically a cheaper version of the skylab program,only experiments are performed robotically in orbit or returned to earth for examination.