Classified Shuttle Mission

I found this interesting article: Goes a bit out there with the design of mission patches, but is interesting

On November 15, 1990, the space shuttle Atlantis roared into the dark Florida sky on STS-38, the seventh dedicated mission for the Department of Defense. Of the ten classified shuttle missions conducted at the height of the program, STS-38 has been the subject of much speculation due to its secret cargo of two very unusual payloads. Tucked inside the shuttle’s payload bay was a classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) communications satellite—known as Quasar—that would be used to relay data between intelligence spacecraft in low Earth orbit. But the Quasar payload, although highly classified, also served as a cover story for an even more exotic payload—a stealthy satellite inspection spacecraft, often referred to as “Prowler”, designed to sneak up on other satellites undetected, photographing and measuring them in various ways.

Rest of article...

[edit on 26-8-2008 by Entreri]

This whole "secret" mission era was stupid and it didn't take NASA and the DOD long to just slip the Military Assets up to space alongside the other "stuff' and that is still going on today!
The stated goal of the American Space Command is to dominate space through the arming of Low Earth Orbit, surrounding the Earth, by the USA, via the military, using newly developed pulse energy and laser weapons, that have been built and openly tested and work! (DOD-1996, White Sands) And with climate change, control of the weather is now a priority..HAARP as the "known" asset, and also there are secret, deployed (via shuttles) "assets", that are already being used. LBJ said in the 60's that the man who controlled space would control the weather. And that, control of the weather meant control of the world! He used the term: Masters of the World. NASA regularlly gets access to the DOD "black budget", while openly claiming their funding is too little. Yet since the 70's all we have ever done , manned, is fly a mere 300 miles up..park..to merely supply and man various space observation platforms, while tiny cameras ride mini skateboards around small, hidden sandpits on Mars digging dirt! That is the full extent of our eras space exploration! And the shuttles are down forever in 2010??? The former secret military missions are the future for funding NASA, using the Russian and China Space arms race/moon base race, for motivation (both Russia and China !00% military Space Agency manned and funded too!) Whatever happened to science experiments?