Between 1982 and 1992, NASA launched 11 shuttle
flights with classified payloads, honoring a deal
that dated to 1969, when the National
Reconnaissance Officean organization so secret
its name could not bee published at the
timerequested certain changes to the design of
NNASAâs new space transportation system. The
NRO built and operated large, expensive
reconnaissance satellites, and it wanted a bigger
shuttle cargo bay than NASA had planned. The
spysat agency also wanted the option to fly "once
around" polar missions, which demanded more
flexibility to maneuver for a landing that could
be on either side of the vehicle's ground track.
"NRO requirements drove the shuttle design," says
Parker Temple, a historian who served on the
policy staff of the secretary of the Air Force
and later with the NRO's office within the
Central Intelligence Agency. The Air Force signed
on to use the shuttle too, and in 1979 started
building a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force
Base in northern California for reaching polar
orbits. Neither the Air Force nor the NRO was
ever comfortable relying exclusively on NASAâs
vehicle, however. Delays in shuttle launches only
increased their worry; even before the 1986
Challenger accident, they were looking for a way
off the shuttle and back onto conventional rockets like the Titan.
<http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Secret-Space-Shuttles.html>Link
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/07/military-space-nro-and-space-shuttle.htm>monochrom
at 7/25/2009 12:32:00 PM
