NASA astronauts kept quiet about military space projects?

Alright I have a question for everyone. If this has been discussed before just let me know. Some of us here on ATS probably know or believe that some of our shuttle flights into space are military in nature and sometimes regarding the cargo they carry. Some missions are kept classified. Here are my questions:

1. Does anyone here believe this?

2. Do the astronauts flying these missions know the TRUE nature of the mission? In other words they could be just following orders without question.

3. If any of the above is true can you provide links? I regret I have not researched this much but I do believe it to be true myself. Thanks.

Most of the military stuff goes off over at Vanderburg AFB in Cali, but of course the shuttle has been used for military missions.

As far as the shuttle crew knowing? Of course they know, and whats the big deal anyway....the pilots and flight engineers are all military for the most part, and I would imagine the entire crew is miltary on classified missions.

Originally posted by moxyone
Most of the military stuff goes off over at Vanderburg AFB in Cali, but of course the shuttle has been used for military missions.

As far as the shuttle crew knowing? Of course they know, and whats the big deal anyway....the pilots and flight engineers are all military for the most part, and I would imagine the entire crew is miltary on classified missions.

You're probably right Mox. I'm not arguing with you. I just wanted insight from other fellow ATS members. Thanks.

It s still unconfirmed, but the Russians believed that our shuttle was a nuclear first strike weapon during the cold war (I would imagine that it was taken into consideratio )

They then built theirs to do the same.

As far as the astrnauts knowing, it depends. There is this thing called the need to know basis, so if they don't need to know, they don't need to know. If they need to know to complete their mission, well, then they need to know.

Most of the classified payloads use the Atlas rocket, I believe. I used to live near Melbourne, Fl and I personally saw some rockets that blasted off in the depths of the night that were not scheduled. (at least as far as I could tell, as the local paper had a beat writer attached to NASA and would always list dates/times of rocket liftoffs.

The night launches are pretty cool, regardless.

I myself and I think most people dont even know 1/3 about what they are doing in space.Honestly I almost hope they are doing some secret stuff because from all that I read all the major break throughs in space have been able to be done from the earth through satellite, probes, ect.(and not very good either)

They go into to space all the time yet I have no idea what they do up there.

So either its all mostly classified or they are wasting our tax dollars as usual.

as they say in texas...."Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day."

Originally posted by mrmulder
Alright I have a question for everyone. If this has been discussed before just let me know. Some of us here on ATS probably know or believe that some of our shuttle flights into space are military in nature and sometimes regarding the cargo they carry. Some missions are kept classified. Here are my questions:

1. Does anyone here believe this?

Yes, go to the NASA web site and they list all of the shuttle military missions.

2. Do the astronauts flying these missions know the TRUE nature of the mission? In other words they could be just following orders without question.

Yes, they are fully briefed as to the mission and payload. The training sessions for those missions are off limits to non-mission essential personnel (ie no bringing the kids in to see mom or dad in the neutral buoyancy pool).

3. If any of the above is true can you provide links? I regret I have not researched this much but I do believe it to be true myself. Thanks.

Other than the NASA link, no. I have talked to a couple of them about it and that was about the limit of what they told me.

The NASA space ships are going to the mother ship

Maybe.. but anyway i think the crew know whats going on, they need to because the cargo may put the mission in danger somehow and the crew need to be able to fix the situation.
ive been thinking about this topic also nice way to read my mind

For many years the Air Force visited NASA so often that employees became worried that the military would take NASA over.

From "rumor"
The Air Force didn't consider NASA dependable. No back up, not enough oversight. NASA carried a few DoD satllites on shuttles and the crew only knew they were DoD not necessarily what the satellites capabilities were.

Remember Hubble, CRES and other NASA failures. Every one of them came about because of institutional problems (NASA culture) not because of generalized equipment designs. Although specific designs elements may have contributed or even caused the problem the onus for failures lay squarly at the institution itself.
Culture
more Culture

The new administrator won't change much. Systematic change do not occur when the people that run the old system run the new one.

Originally posted by American Mad Man
It s still unconfirmed, but the Russians believed that our shuttle was a nuclear first strike weapon during the cold war (I would imagine that it was taken into consideratio

)

I think the system is called Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, but I have never heard of the shuttle having that capacity. Im not an expert on orbital mechanics, but does the shuttles usual orbit allow for the launce of a system like that? Its not in Geo orbit and is moving rather fast????

But the Shuttle has launched serveral military satelites and paylaods. It may have even carried out a rescue of a satelite as well. If you look at shuttle logs all you get is a brief note STS-Something: Classified military cargo etc. I would assume that everybody would be military on that flight or at the very least cleared.

Well, from what I here the astronauts train for each mission in vary specific underwater environments which closely replicate what the next mission will be like. They'd need to be completely informed or else if something went wrong they'd be in a lot of trouble. Besides, NASA doesn't like to, "wing it" to often.

I would have a hard time believing some of the missions weren't military projects to some degree or contained them in thier mission plan.

Seems silly that the government would spend that much money on the Shuttle program over the last few decades without there being other plans involved.

Well my Grandparents used to winter in florida every year for quite a while, and they said that about 3 out of every 4 lauches shuttle or atlas rocket was not announced to the public so it was generally assumed that they were sending up classified payloads. I believe the US will use whatever assets it has(and the shuttle is certainly a unique asset) to complete its mission objectives whatever they are and they will always use the best launch platform for the job. Allthough lately since Columbia that asset hasn't been available to them so they are obviosuly just using rockets right now cuz you can't hide a shuttle launch.

Yes I believe this to be true, though I have no proof, but NASA them self�s have said that certain launches have been military in nature, here are a couple of video links, the KSC is an assortment of different cameras around the shuttle and surrounding complex .

Kennedy Space Center
Live Video Feeds
spaceflight.nasa.gov...


United Space Alliance video Feed
www.unitedspacealliance.com...