Military space shuttle
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A military space shuttle would be (if it exists) the oft-speculated-upon[citation needed] military equivalent of NASA's space shuttle. Many experts believe[citation needed] that it is extremely unlikely that NASA, the United States Department of Defense or any other Federal agency could keep the existence of such a spacecraft secret, given the official knowledge that stated extensive technical support and launching establishment would be necessary to fly it.
It should however be noted that, early in the design phase of what eventually became the Space Shuttle, there were plans for the U.S. military to purchase some of the vehicles for its own purposes (mainly the servicing and crewing of proposed 'surveillance space stations'). The design requirements that thus emerged (in particular, the need for a longer-range glide capability, enabling the shuttle to land at specific U.S. Air Force bases), affected the eventual design of the vehicle, increasing its complexity. However, none of these 'Blue Shuttles' were ever built, and the U.S. military turned to increasingly sophisticated unmanned satellites as a more viable alternative.
Regular space shuttles have on occasion carried out missions for the military. It is noteworthy that NASA and the DoD agreed on delivering Discovery to Vandenberg AFB, first in May 1985 and then in September of that year. Discovery would have been dedicated for military and civilian flights from Vandenbergs' SLC-6 launch complex[citation needed]. The schedule slipped untill the Challenger Accident in January 1986. In the wake of Challenger, on December 26, 1989 the Space Shuttle Program at Vandenberg was terminated by the USAF. .[1] Military Shuttle flights were conducted from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the last dedicated mission being STS-53 in late 1992, deploying a military SDS B-3 communication satellite. Some military payloads have been flown on regular civilian Shuttle missions afterwards.[2]
Military space shuttles have, however, been featured in popular entertainment from time to time.
[edit] Fictional references
One appeared in the James Bond movie Moonraker, carrying a platoon of spacesuited, laser-armed United States Marines to successfully attack the previously-concealed space station of Hugo Drax. This may not be a 'covert' spacecraft, however, as it's plainly marked with Marine Corps logos, and there's no indication anywhere in the film that the Marines' orbital combat capability is a national secret.
Another such shuttle was discussed, but not shown, in the NBC television series The West Wing. The disclosure of its existence by White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler was the focus of a protracted investigation. Ziegler breached Federal national-security laws by revealing the classified military space shuttle's existence to Greg Brock, a reporter for The New York Times, apparently because of his belief that three (two American, one Russian) astronauts marooned and running out of oxygen on the malfunctioning International Space Station would otherwise not be rescued. President Josiah Bartlet personally fired Ziegler for his willful breach of the law, but later pardoned him in the series finale.
Two shuttles under military command were shown in the 1998 movie Armageddon. Designated X-71s, they were named Freedom and Independence. Again, however, these shuttles were not particularly covert - internal dialogue in the film plainly stated that they were to be replacements for the "original shuttles," and were to be publicly announced and rolled out in a lavish ceremony in a few months, had not the asteroid crisis arisen before that could happen.
