Guest dr. strangelove Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47842589/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T96Ro_XNnuw The air force says its mission was not nefarious, so all we know for certain is that its mission was definitely nefarious. I just wonder what it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. What would they have to say to make you think it's not nefarious? I'm not sure you're contrary enough that you'd think it wasn't if they said it was... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
薔薇語 Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. I think the only way to get him to believe it wasn't is to never launch it. Seriously, there is no satisfying the truly paranoid. La Rose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. What would they have to say to make you think it's not nefarious? How about saying what the mission was rather than just saying "you don't need to know." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dr. strangelove Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. How about saying what the mission was rather than just saying "you don't need to know." Something like this may have been nice. It also may have given me cause to suspect it was on the up and up if it was plausible enough, and supported by some people not on the pentagon's payroll. Whenever "the system" says "We're not going to tell you anything about (whatever) except X." you know for certain that the proper equation in the case is that "X=BS". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
薔薇語 Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. How about saying what the mission was rather than just saying "you don't need to know." How about saying at the mission was of national military importance. believe it or not mccoy not everything has to be run through you to get approved and say that it's not nefarious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dr. strangelove Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. The fact is that the system has lied to us so much for so long that it's just not credible anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. How about saying at the mission was of national military importance. believe it or not mccoy not everything has to be run through you to get approved and say that it's not nefarious. How sure are you that a lot of this doesn't get run through me? I don't tell you everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. How sure are you that a lot of this doesn't get run through me? I don't tell you everything. Nefarious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. How sure are you that a lot of this doesn't get run through me? Because if you were running the show we would be living in a golden era of peace and prosperity heretofore unseen in the history of ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. Because if you were running the show we would be living in a golden era of peace and prosperity heretofore unseen in the history of ever. Well, yeah, there is that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. The fact is that the system has lied to us so much for so long that it's just not credible anymore. The problem with that logic is: Even if they told you, would you believe them? I mean they always lie Let's theorize a little what it could have been: I have heard it could be a launch-platform for mini-satelites. It could also have been a test for a reuseable/highly maneuverable spy sattelite/recon vehicle. They could have use it to maintain spy satelites. Something they can't do without shuttle (and certainly not with Sojus capsules). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. There are two mutually exclusive needs at work here. Governments sometimes need to keep things secret. Democracy only works if the voters are informed, which means transparent government For too long Americans were willing to give the benefit of the doubt to their government when they said "we need to keep that secret." In my youth, it came out that the government had abused that privilege, kept a lot of secrets for far less noble purposes than national security. Thus some people now have the knee jerk reaction to question the need for all secrecy by the government. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted June 17, 2012 Report Share Posted June 17, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. The problem with that logic is: Even if they told you, would you believe them? I mean they always lie Let's theorize a little what it could have been: I have heard it could be a launch-platform for mini-satelites. It could also have been a test for a reuseable/highly maneuverable spy sattelite/recon vehicle. They could have use it to maintain spy satelites. Something they can't do without shuttle (and certainly not with Sojus capsules). Or they could be proving the whole concept of a remote-controlled space plane, and can't tell you what aspects of remote controlling space planes needed proving? I believe that the precise accuracy of GPS is classified, but it's not exactly a nefarious technology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted June 21, 2012 Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. There are two mutually exclusive needs at work here.Governments sometimes need to keep things secret. Democracy only works if the voters are informed, which means transparent government For too long Americans were willing to give the benefit of the doubt to their government when they said "we need to keep that secret." In my youth, it came out that the government had abused that privilege, kept a lot of secrets for far less noble purposes than national security. Thus some people now have the knee jerk reaction to question the need for all secrecy by the government. Though there is a tendency for bureaucrats with the ability to declare their stuff secret to use and overuse the classification stamp simply to cut down on the number of people looking over their shoulder. That tendency snowballed into an avalanche during the Cold War to the point where only obvious fictions were unclassified. The obsession with secrecy ballooned into the biggest government relations fiasco ever documented, where the US military began a campaign to discredit well-meaning American citizens who reported weird stuff they saw that happened to be military aerospace R&D projects. And at that point you need to round up security-obsessed colonels and give them firing squad discharges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ockham's Spoon Posted June 21, 2012 Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. Even if the mission was prosaic, the military isn't going to tell anyone, because if they only talk about mundane stuff, then as soon as they won't talk you know there is something up. Better to always keep people guessing. Besides which it masks the techological capabilites that the military has or doesn't have. I was told a story about an American radar installation somewhere near the UK (don't know if its true, but it illustrates the point). The installation was highly guarded and rumor was that there were nukes there. The soldiers at the installation were instructed not to say anything about what went on there. So when the locals asked if there were nukes there and the soldiers just said "We can't talk about it" everyone thought "Ah ha! They do have nukes there." That kind of misinformation keeps the enemy guessing. That said, the whole "national security" excuse to keep information classified is horribly abused for convenient political cover. While you can always come up with scenarios where information should probably be kept classified, I think by and large that kind of secrecy isn't needed nearly as often as they claim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted June 21, 2012 Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Re: Space plane spends 15 months in orbit, mission still secret. I heard about that mission a little while ago. The Conspiracy crowd is saying that mission was for the purpose of putting Killer Satellites into place that are autonomous and capable of pinpoint accuracy. This is in preparation for the planned for the end of 2012. I so dearly love the tinfoil-hat crowd. They are a never-ending source of amusement for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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