Secret Astronauts and NOVA

Well for some time we have been saying that there is a Secret Astronaut Corps 'out there'...but today I was sent an email showing the upcoming NOVA program called "ASTROSPIES"

www.pbs.org...

Tuesday, February 12 at 8 p.m.
Check your local listings as dates and times may vary. Broadcast in HD where available.

Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns, and
parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the moon in the 1960s. But few
know that both countries also ran parallel space programs, whose
covert goal was to launch military astronauts on spying missions. In
this program, NOVA delves into the untold story of this top-secret
space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in
orbit.

Coproduced by investigative journalist James Bamford, acclaimed
best-selling author of The Puzzle Palace and Emmy Award-winning
producer Scott Willis, "Astrospies" uncovers new clues about the
tensest period of the Cold War, when the U.S. and USSR were on the
verge of war and desperate for intelligence on each other's nuclear
capabilities.

Here's what you'll find online:

Watch the Program
www.pbs.org...
"Astrospies" will be available to view online starting
February 13.

Secret Astronauts
www.pbs.org...
Meet eight astronauts from the Manned Orbiting Laboratory
program.

The Race Today
www.pbs.org...
Historian Asif Siddiqi discusses the space programs of China,
India, and other new players, and their impact.

Space Race Time Line
www.pbs.org...
Examine turning points in the heated competition between the U.S.
and USSR to dominate space.

Spy Photos
www.pbs.org...
A surveillance-image specialist examines photos of Iraq, North
Korea, and other political hotspots.

Also, a video preview, Links & Books, the Teacher's Guide, and more:

www.pbs.org...

So here we have a main stream educational program handling the Secret Astronaut and Secret Space Program issue...

I for one will be glued to the TV for this one... especially since its reported as a race between Russia and US to arm space and has been going on since the 60's

This should be very interesting... to bad John isn't here to see it

Thanks for the info. I just set it in my tivo.

After reading the brief synopsis of the program, it seems that these "astrospies" never made it off the ground and the whole thing was scrapped. So much for using the show to prove yours and John's theories.

Thanks Z , will try and watch, have some ice coming tomorrow, but if the electric stays on we will be lucky.

Awesome

This is great news Zorgon, I will defiantly be watching this one. Thanks for the great news and I wish are good friend John was here.

[edit on 2/11/08 by housegroove23]

Originally posted by scooler1 So much for using the show to prove yours and John's theories.

Not worried about proof... I will settle for main stream coverage of the topic for now

One step at a time... and I am quite sure they wouldn't be able to tell us anything really top secret anymore than we can

But it will raise interest

reply to post by zorgon


Thanks for the heads up on the program. Looks to be a very good episode.

As facinating as it's surely to be, a secret and parallel military manned space program is a long way from anti-grav propulsion systems, a breathable lunar atmosphere, lunar mining camps, and 4th astronauts on apollo flights.

If there was more to the story than plans for orbital manned surveillence platforms, I think it's unlikely they would have declassified any information associated with the program.

Nevertheless, it will be an interesting program and I'll be sure to see it.

Originally posted by scooler1
After reading the brief synopsis of the program, it seems that these "astrospies" never made it off the ground and the whole thing was scrapped. So much for using the show to prove yours and John's theories.

That tells me that they're trying to spread disinformation for two reasons. One to try and quiet the conspiracy theorists, and two... to ensure that the sheeple who are still asleep continue to disregard the conspiracy theorists as "crazy".

Let me see if I have this right.

You are going to argue that a publicly announced program is the basis for your claims of a secret astronaut corps?

Are you getting paid to plug this or something? This is your third post on the same topic.

Originally posted by annestacey
That tells me that they're trying to spread disinformation for two reasons.

Starred.

Better to be a quick wit than a quick study.

I think I can help here as the US Space Program is my fav subject.

The USAF/USN did have a selection of pilots that qualified as Astros.

These where part of the Manned Orbital Labority, which was to test out space survailance.

This was to use re-fitted and new Gemini capsules from the Nasa program.

The idea was to send them up and spy on the Soviets and Cuba.

They would spend a lengthy period of time (about 30 days) watching and radioing stuff like pictures and reports down.

At least one flight capable capsule (unamnned) was launched which was a re-fit of the unmanned Gemini 2 craft.

*If the mods allow it I will publish below, the names of pilots in the USAF/USN MOL program*

Note: Some of these transfered to the main NASA Space program.


MOL Group 1 1965

Michael J. Adams (Air Force)
Albert H. Crews Jr. (Air Force)
John L. Finley (Navy)
Richard E. Lawyer (Air Force)
Lachlan Macleay (Air Force)
Francis G. Neubeck (Air Force)
James M. Taylor (Air Force)
Richard H. Truly (Navy)


MOL Group 2 1966

Karol J. Bobko (Air Force)
Robert L. Crippen (Navy)
Charles G. Fullerton (Air Force)
Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr. (Air Force)
Robert F. Overmyer (Marine Corps)


MOL Group 3 1967

James A. Abrahamson (Air Force)
Robert T. Herres (Air Force)
Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. (Air Force)
Donald H. Peterson (Air Force)




Please U2U me if anybody needs my help on anything to do with the Us Space Program.

Regards,

Uk Alien Buff.

admin edit: removed book sales offer, please review the Terms And Conditions

[edit on 2-11-2008 by Springer]

James Bamford is a top-notch, largely self-schooled investigator.

According to his biography, he was in the US Navy during Vietnam Era. Then he used his GI Bill to earn his law degree.

Check out his Wiki page, and note his extensive list of magazine articles from 1982-Present.

Surfing from there I found this fascinating interview by one of the early Photo Interpretations specialists, Dino Brugioni.

Edit: According to the Nova site, if you miss the show you can watch the entire thing on their site, one day later:

www.pbs.org...





[edit on 11-2-2008 by Badge01]

reply to post by zorgon

This should be very interesting... to bad John isn't here to see it

He's on, but off the post to ats function even though he reports as a "member" with no "banned" emblem showing. As for the secret space corp. Now we will have something to research further information after knowing public broadcasting has revealed the secret.....

The large U.S. military space program is a given. No question. And I have a tendency to think that they probably also have a manned component to it, but I have no idea how extensive that might be. I suspect it might be primarily manned test flights of trans-atmospheric air/spacecraft. I don't believe that they have large secret space stations, or any manned presence on the Moon or other moons/planets.

The idea is interesting, though. Trying to imagine how you could do such a thing without people knowing more about it.

If I was a TV producer, I think it's an interesting idea for a series.

reply to post by zorgon


From what I understand, the Airforce ran or is running the program and it's operational name is Darkstar which includes some type of multi stage, airplane launched space vehicle.

Originally posted by jfj123
From what I understand, the Airforce ran or is running the program and it's operational name is Darkstar which includes some type of multi stage, airplane launched space vehicle.

I guess the question that always comes to my mind about this stuff is "where is all of this happening?" We've all seen the kind of support it takes to send something like the shuttle up. Not just the machinery itself, but everything necessary to support the large number of people needed to make it go. Houses, food service, telephones, roads, all that stuff.

And you look at someplace like Vandenberg AFB, which launches stuff regularly. It takes up a huge amount of land and is its own pretty good-sized town. Even so, every time they launch something, the folks in Lompoc know about it. There's no way I know of to keep those a complete secret.

So as an intellectual exercise, how would you go about (perfectly?) concealing a large manned spaceflight center, considering how big it would have to be and how many people would have to know about it?

That's where I can see maybe a smaller manned program that disguises its business by pretending it's just launching communications satellites or something. Nothing huge.

Thanks for the heads up zorgon.
I won't be able to watch it since I choose not to have cable.I'll have to wait for an online version.

Originally posted by Nohup

Originally posted by jfj123
From what I understand, the Airforce ran or is running the program and it's operational name is Darkstar which includes some type of multi stage, airplane launched space vehicle.

I guess the question that always comes to my mind about this stuff is "where is all of this happening?" We've all seen the kind of support it takes to send something like the shuttle up. Not just the machinery itself, but everything necessary to support the large number of people needed to make it go. Houses, food service, telephones, roads, all that stuff.

And you look at someplace like Vandenberg AFB, which launches stuff regularly. It takes up a huge amount of land and is its own pretty good-sized town. Even so, every time they launch something, the folks in Lompoc know about it. There's no way I know of to keep those a complete secret.

So as an intellectual exercise, how would you go about (perfectly?) concealing a large manned spaceflight center, considering how big it would have to be and how many people would have to know about it?

That's where I can see maybe a smaller manned program that disguises its business by pretending it's just launching communications satellites or something. Nothing huge.

All very good questions !!!
I don't know whether I believe project Darkstar is real as the only information I was able to dig up came from Popular Mechanics and a few "in passing" references.
The supposed program launches a space plane off of a 747 so theoretically it could take off from a desert landing strip and it might be fairly difficult to see a small plane on top of a 747 especially if it were camo'd or the plane lifted off at night.

Of course this is nothing but pure speculation on my part and there may be absolutely no program at all.

[edit on 11-2-2008 by jfj123]

Originally posted by WorldShadowNow we will have something to research further information after knowing public broadcasting has revealed the secret.....

I am not expecting any great revelation, but NOVA has a way of tossing out surprises... I am hoping to glean some new leads to search for after this...

To COOL HAND

No I am not getting paid to plug it... But I can see you cringing in your seat because main stream is starting to lean our way

Mod Edit - Sniping comment removed - Courtesy is Mandatory - attack the posts and not the posters


Seems this new thread is picking up where John left off

www.abovetopsecret.com...






[edit on 12/0208/08 by neformore]

reply to post by Nohup

And you look at someplace like Vandenberg AFB, which launches stuff regularly. It takes up a huge amount of land and is its own pretty good-sized town. Even so, every time they launch something, the folks in Lompoc know about it. There's no way I know of to keep those a complete secret.

Yeah but it doesnt mean they have to disclose the payloads of the craft they launch which doesn't rule out manned flights and space station parts. Hiding it in plain sight like that would be the smartest thing they could do. Also recently the military has been starting to admit that their space program is and has been for a while larger than NASA's. So if their program is bigger and NASA can go to the moon and build space stations i think the answer is quite obvious. I've seen commericials recently campaigning for people to join the military space program so maybe they are trying to slowly bring it into the light, or perhaps they are expanding.

So as an intellectual exercise, how would you go about (perfectly?) concealing a large manned spaceflight center, considering how big it would have to be and how many people would have to know about it?

Tell everyone you launch satellites but you really launch people and space station parts. Also i remember watching shows on TLC many years back and issues of popular science that spoke of the possibility of launching from ocean based platforms that resemble oil rigs. If they were to construct these types of platforms im sure they would even get away with building the entire platform minus the launch tower without the builders even knowing its true purpose, and then getting aerospace contractors to come in and install the tower. There are also many secluded places on the planet that are ideal for secrecy for example Alaska. Russia also has miles upon miles of remote areas and secret military bases to boot so even they can pull it off. They can even have an agreement with Canada which has more unused land than you can shake a stick at.

If you really think about it the launch areas exist, the motives exist and enough missing money (3 Trillion or so?) exists to have build several space stations larger than the ISS. I guess the reason why they don't tell us about it is either

A. they don't want to fact the music such as getting in trouble for spending our money without asking and well perhaps for all the secrets and lies.

0r B. Discoveries were made that at the time we were not realy as a society to deal with.

And maybe they don't want to tell us now because maybe they figure they can cover it up for abit longer or untill they have an excuse for lying to us. They could always say "well we always knew there were aliens and we had to make sure it was safe" or "we were saving the world from meteors and didnt want to alarm the populace". Its really hard to say for sure but either way the evidence is there.