Secret space plane lands at US air force base after unknown two-year mission

a reply to: supergravity

Just had to knock it way out n left field huh?

a reply to: Swills

did it not follow the Chinese spacestation for awhile ?

Off topic .. You chose a great avatar such a great personality and tragic how he died..

If it was the Iranians who were conducting this or
Russia?
China?
N Korea?

Would this be not considered of interest to global security?

If its peaceful then disclose it.

Funded with what money? Tax payers? Yet they are not privy to know?

Money wasted on these and similar ventures could change the lives of millions of people in need.

Dr Carol Rosin re Von Braun..........

Big enough to carry cargo - 'to and fro’. 2 years? Enough time to perform a supply run to Mars base!

a reply to: havanaja

No, the B only has a cargo bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. It's really small. The taller people on the ground crew can see over the top of it.

The C, if it ever gets built, could though.

originally posted by: Swills
a reply to: jaws1975

The shuttle once belonged to NASA but the article describes it as an orphan who has been adopted by the USAF. So it's military and definitely classified. Years down the road I'm sure someone will file a FOIA request netting some info.

It is the military so I'm definitely aboard the spying theory but chances are that shuttle is multitasking from spying to science to tech and everything else in between.

but but but our dear leader swore he would not "weaponize space".

a reply to: havanaja

I saw this thing take off 2 years ago when I was walking to the store in Santa Barbara(Vandenberg is 40 miles north) one night and my friend and I dropped to the ground when we saw it. It was rather loud, and was taking off at an almost horizontal angle. This thing had a lot of cargo on it and had a huge rocket attached to it. The first thing we did was google scheduled launches and we found an article saying the unknown cargo of the launch.

a reply to: ThirdEyeofHorus

How is a shuttle "weaponising space"?

a reply to: Swills

Secret two year orbital mission? Sounds very interesting, I wonder what they're up too. My guess, spy games.

Well one thing is for sure, it cant be such a big "secret" if everybody including ATS knows about it.

My guess is you could probably find what it did, and it would be something so mundane that you would forget about it the next day.

a reply to: Zaphod58
US Air Force!!!!!!

a reply to: ThirdEyeofHorus

So what? There are probably hundreds of military owned satellites in space since the start of the space program. That doesn't mean that there are weapons up there. Just because the Air Force owns it doesn't mean they're putting weapons in space. Quite a few things that are perfectly harmless can be done better in space than they can be on earth.

a reply to: kevinp2300

It was rather loud, and was taking off at an almost horizontal angle.

Nope. Orbital launches do not go anywhere near horizontal. Pretty vertical for the first 20 or 30 miles (up).

a reply to: Phage

idk what i saw then. maybe the actual plane due to it flying an angle similar of a shuttle.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: ThirdEyeofHorus

So what? There are probably hundreds of military owned satellites in space since the start of the space program. That doesn't mean that there are weapons up there. Just because the Air Force owns it doesn't mean they're putting weapons in space. Quite a few things that are perfectly harmless can be done better in space than they can be on earth.

Well for one thing I think he was full of it when he made that declaration on behalf of his anti military voting base. But in any case if it is some kind of secret military high tech, what else would be considered weaponizing space? oh I forgot it can only be Reagan's Star Wars plan to be that.....

a reply to: kevinp2300

Not on launch. The Shuttle followed the same profile. Straight up for 40 miles or so then a gradual turn to "horizontal".
www.space-shuttle.com...

I don't know what you saw either. The launch was at Cape Canaveral.
www.universetoday.com...

a reply to: Swills

I like orphan adopted planes. The sports model.

It would be awesome to fly one. (_)> Cheers!

a reply to: ThirdEyeofHorus

Then by your definition space has been weaponised from the start, since the US has been launching military satellites since 1959, and the Soviets started in 1962 (first recorded military satellites).

Yes, weaponising space would require, actual, honest to go weapons to be up there. That would be the whole, you know, WEAPON part of the word "weaponising".

There's a lot of military high tech that has nothing to do with weapons. Crystals for radios and telescopes grow better in space than they do on earth, improving communications and optics. Many things that the military does that are high tech can have parts made in space better than on the ground because of the lack of gravity.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Not to mention meteorology, mapping, spying and communications.

a reply to: Phage

o man I guess that means I saw something secret ha. This thing was big and flew more horizontal. Was loud and burned a bright orange.

a reply to: kevinp2300

Loud and bright.

Not a good way to stay secret.