What does it mean??

The All-Powerful Atheismo: What does it mean??

Its a secret.

MINI space shuttle?

The All-Powerful Atheismo: What does it mean??


magnets

Is that damn Russian probe still dicking around up there? Maybe someone thinks the shuttle or its arm can be used to get pointed in a non earth impacting direction.

I am sure that the Stonecutters are somehow involved in this.

Nah, it's lost.

ha-ha-guy: Is that damn Russian probe still dicking around up there? Maybe someone thinks the shuttle or its arm can be used to get pointed in a non earth impacting direction.

It could deorbit it, in theory.
Chances are tho they arent in anything like a similar obit. So the two could never meet.

Top secret things have "photograph courtesy of Boeing" credits?

Theaetetus: [images.wikia.com image 201x177]
Nah, it's lost.

::golf clap::

I don't have time to find it, but look up 'Lawyer', (a family name), "astronaut" and skip anything that talks about adult diapers.

There was a secret space program to attempt to photograph the USSR in the 60's before satellites could do that. The project was a failure due to unpredictable cloud cover as presented.

I would not be shocked.

Old tech, but they're doing a good job pretending it's a secret cutting edge program with all these articles saying it is. If they wanted it to be secret, it would be. They want you to hear about it.

The trickle down from the military industrial complex to the public has been stated as taking anywhere from 20-40 years. You'll never see or hear about what's truly cutting edge, for reasons of national security, of course.

mohron: MINI space shuttle?

Bah- amateurs

The Reliant Robin is your goto vehicle for car-based shuttles (new window)

/PNSFW- not because of any sex or nudity, but because the rest of the office will not like it when you're on the floor laughing for ten minutes. Skip to about 8:00 for the really good stuff

Glockenspiel Hero: mohron: MINI space shuttle?

Bah- amateurs

The Reliant Robin is your goto vehicle for car-based shuttles (new window)

/PNSFW- not because of any sex or nudity, but because the rest of the office will not like it when you're on the floor laughing for ten minutes. Skip to about 8:00 for the really good stuff

I thought about taking it that direction, but the GIS was easier since most video is blocked at work.

Let me guess, the pilot said he was going to get it washed.

Brettster808: Toby Ziegler unavailable for comment.

Damn It, Toby!

Heh.

Leave it to the military to save a fantastic idea that politicians fark up.

J. Frank Parnell: You'll never see or hear about what's truly cutting edge, for reasons of national security, of course.

Speak for yourself, J. Frank. :D

Meanwhile...

J. Frank Parnell:
The trickle down from the military industrial complex to the public has been stated as taking anywhere from 20-40 years. You'll never see or hear about what's truly cutting edge, for reasons of national security, of course.

5 - 10 years behind is the general consensus I'm afraid. There are no particle cannons, repulsers, anti-grav's or indeed anything 'sci-fi' secreted away, you are safe to remove your tin foil hat. Nor in fact do they have a working cloaking device, the Japanese dude with the 'Harry Potter' cape is in the lead.

The reason why we know so much about the X-31B is because the only way to go in to orbit is to move very fast and generate a lot of noise doing so. It's the same as "secret shuttle launches" when they were designing that in the 60's/70's it's the energy equivalent to a 1 megaton nuke going off to get the old shuttle in to orbit; someone will notice... yes even if you launch at night.

There's little point in keep stuff THAT secret when it's destined for the battlefield. If an enemy wants to know about the latest and greatest... go kill a soldier and loot it or just buy it from them. IF your bullets don't work on killing said soldier, you've already learned a great deal about the new device.

ha-ha-guy: Is that damn Russian probe still dicking around up there? Maybe someone thinks the shuttle or its arm can be used to get pointed in a non earth impacting direction.

I remember posting that idea here (new window) it is but I can't look at it because after it went green it went red, so TF only.

/got nuthin

J. Frank Parnell: Old tech, but they're doing a good job pretending it's a secret cutting edge program with all these articles saying it is. If they wanted it to be secret, it would be. They want you to hear about it.

The trickle down from the military industrial complex to the public has been stated as taking anywhere from 20-40 years. You'll never see or hear about what's truly cutting edge, for reasons of national security, of course.

*applying tinfoil hat*

Wouldn't it be great for the U.S. military to have the ability to scoop up the satellites, from other countries, and return them to earth for study?

*removing tinfoil hat*

Secret Air Force ship in orbit? It's clearly the Prometheus.

StoPPeRmobile
Wouldn't it be great for the U.S. military to have the ability to scoop up the satellites, from other countries, and return them to earth for study?

Moonraker beat you to it.

J. Frank Parnell: The trickle down from the military industrial complex to the public has been stated as taking anywhere from 20-40 years.

Right, like how the first military nuclear reactors went into service in the early 50s, and it wasn't until 20 years later, in the mid 50s, when the first civilian reactors came on line.

Darn! I though it was one of these!

J. Frank Parnell: Old tech, but they're doing a good job pretending

The trickle down from the military industrial complex to the public has been stated as taking anywhere from 20-40 years. You'll never see or hear about what's truly cutting edge, for reasons of national security, of course.

Have you ever really thought about that? You can betcha that rule of thumb works in reverse.. Who are we to doubt the past? it made us.

We're probably a single value on a militarily controlled galactic version of the wheel of fortune, where each wheel-landing possibility is a different mixture of 'modern' technology. We can probably translate locations radially in a bilaterally symmetric exchange in regular intervals.

/of course, this would all be impossible for me to explain to anyone not on a need-to-know basis, so you can just think history is perfectly cromulentular.

\hopefully slashies will save me from the bureaucratic smackdown

Details....are

/got nuthin'
//Subject verb agreement nazi

StoPPeRmobile: J. Frank Parnell: Old tech, but they're doing a good job pretending it's a secret cutting edge program with all these articles saying it is. If they wanted it to be secret, it would be. They want you to hear about it.

The trickle down from the military industrial complex to the public has been stated as taking anywhere from 20-40 years. You'll never see or hear about what's truly cutting edge, for reasons of national security, of course.

*applying tinfoil hat*

Wouldn't it be great for the U.S. military to have the ability to scoop up the satellites, from other countries, and return them to earth for study?

*removing tinfoil hat*

Would you settle for "attach themselves to and deorbit using a drag line"?

I'm surprised the model kit isn't in the stores yet.

Unimpressed.

StoPPeRmobile: J. Frank Parnell: Old tech, but they're doing a good job pretending it's a secret cutting edge program with all these articles saying it is. If they wanted it to be secret, it would be. They want you to hear about it.

The trickle down from the military industrial complex to the public has been stated as taking anywhere from 20-40 years. You'll never see or hear about what's truly cutting edge, for reasons of national security, of course.

*applying tinfoil hat*

Wouldn't it be great for the U.S. military to have the ability to scoop up the satellites, from other countries, and return them to earth for study?

*removing tinfoil hat*

Why do you think the space shuttle had a cargo bay?
It also carried out secret missions (or secret moments in normal missions, anyway).
Its possible they could have followed through with plans to nix enemy equipment. Not like anyone would know.

sarah_t_s: The reason why we know so much about the X-37B is because the only way to go in to orbit is to move very fast and generate a lot of noise doing so.

You can't hide the launch, but you can easily hide what sits under the clam shell doors.
We know about the X-37B because this is the most exciting thing to happen in military space since the MOL project or Blue Gemini. Altho, because it launches under a fairing, they could even have kept the fact that its an RLV a secret.
The military launches "weather satellites" all the time and this isn't even the biggest of them.
I half suspect we only know this much because it started life as a NASA project, and because Boeing is half hopeful of selling the X-37C as a manned launch system someday.
Runway returns would sure beat being dunked off shore in a pod. Especially when dealing with time sensitive experiments.

What we still don't know is exactly what they are doing with this ship.
It could be testing high end spy equipment, or doing material sample exposure, or harvesting bits of old satellites, or doing refueling experiments, or trading baseball cards with aliens for all anyone knows.

There's a quarter ton of mystery in its payload bay.



Being small makes it simple to transport, cheap to launch, and easy to hide.
Being reusable and always returning to base means there won't be wreckage to study.

Its the kind of soldier you can't bribe or kill to study, and Boeing is pretty good at keeping secrets.

I thought I'd ask anyway:

Subject: X-37B Space Plane

When and where is your secret space plane supposed to land?

My brother and I would like to watch it land and take photos.

Thanks much.

~Coelacanth


Subject: AFRS Ask A Question: X-37B Space Plane

Thank you for your interest in the United States Air Force.

I have no information on that topic

Best wishes,

~ Air Force

Is the whole "capture old/enemy satellites" even plausible? I know there's a wide variety of orbits for these things, but aren't they all out farther than this shuttle is?

TheHumanCannonball: Is the whole "capture old/enemy satellites" even plausible? I know there's a wide variety of orbits for these things, but aren't they all out farther than this shuttle is?

The low altitude ones, below 300 miles, maybe.
Any attempt to do circumpolar orbits from Vandemberg was scrapped after challenger, and that's the popular route for spy satellites.
So they wouldn't be in reach of anything good unless a tug dragged it there.

Tinfoil hat time: a tug like the x37, which rides on an individually programmable centaur upper stage. Or any capture sat with an arm, fuel, and a shiatload of time to transition the orbits.
In theory you can use the moon to go from low orbit to geosync or anywhere in between.
You just can't do that on the space shuttle.

way south: TheHumanCannonball: Is the whole "capture old/enemy satellites" even plausible? I know there's a wide variety of orbits for these things, but aren't they all out farther than this shuttle is?

The low altitude ones, below 300 miles, maybe.
Any attempt to do circumpolar orbits from Vandemberg was scrapped after challenger, and that's the popular route for spy satellites.
So they wouldn't be in reach of anything good unless a tug dragged it there.

Tinfoil hat time: a tug like the x37, which rides on an individually programmable centaur upper stage. Or any capture sat with an arm, fuel, and a shiatload of time to transition the orbits.
In theory you can use the moon to go from low orbit to geosync or anywhere in between.
You just can't do that on the space shuttle.

*puts on tinfoil hat*

Fog of war. Fog of war. Fog of war.

Welcome to pre WW2 communication, countries that don't agree with U.S. economic policy.

*removes tinfoil hat*


I would imagine that this scenario has got to be scaring the shiat out of some leaders. Imagine if they could not track U.S. forces with the accuracy that they have been able to. Not so sure that Russia would have rolled those tanks into Georgia recently if this had been available knowledge.

StoPPeRmobile: Imagine if they could not track U.S. forces with the accuracy that they have been able to.

I'm not sure world leaders really understand the spy and counter spy game that's been playing on around their heads.

The satellite capture/move/hack plan of the CIA had a few flaws. The main one being that there was nothing stopping Yuri from wedging a hand grenade behind the cover plate of his next satellite.
They could have intentionally baited us by launching a "super secret satellite" then pretending to abandon it in an easily fetchable orbit, just so they could observe one of our capture sats at work.

Assuming we really wanted to study their tech up close. Because by the time the technology for it came to pass we had gained an absurd lead in the space race. One where anti satellite operations are more of a problem for us than anyone else.

One of the X-37's selling points was that it was easily launched, moved to new orbits, and retrieved in any event that shiat really hit the fan.

I want to see them use it to stablize that russian mars probe that's going to crash and burn.