How many secrets do we still have?
Supersecret robot spaceship completes ultra-secret mission, officials say at press conference:
The U.S. Air Force's secrecy-shrouded X-37B unmanned spaceplane returned to Earth early Friday after more than seven months in orbit on a classified mission, officials said.
The winged craft autonomously landed at at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, Vandenburg spokesman Jeremy Eggers said.
"It's very exciting," Eggers said of the 1:16 a.m. PST landing.
The X-37B was launched by an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 22, 2010, with a maximum mission duration of 270 days.
That’s very cool, and while I’m glad I know about it, you wonder why they feel compelled to have press conferences about secrecy-shrouded things that had absolutely no payload, nosirree, none at all. Theory: they tell us about these things to make us think they have really secret things they never tell anyone about. Or so I’d like to think.
As for being secrecy-shrouded: well. Granted, that's the X-37, not the X-37B, but unless the B has phaser banks, you can probably gather the general idea.
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Aug '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
From what I understand, since the X-37 was originally a NASA project, they cannot keep the existence or broad design elements of the craft a secret.
It's just the bits that happened after the Air Force took over the project that are secret, like what the dang thing is for, and what's inside the cargo bay.
So, since they cannot keep the basics of the thing a secret, they might as well have a press conference to promote the fact that the Air Force has this really cool new toy, and building up their own prestige, while not actually answering any questions on the classified aspects of the project.
Aug '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
So, why did the Air Force take the project over from NASA?
My favourite theory (though possibly just a pipe-dream) is that NASA sees the writing on the wall where cargo lift is concerned, and they know that there will be plenty of private suppliers for this kind of service. So there's no real need for NASA to have this kind of unmanned cargo vehicle when they can just hire private companies to provide that service.
The Air Force, on the other hand, needs its own vehicle, for obvious reasons. It's not like the Air Force rents fighter jets and hires private contractors to fly sorties.
Aug '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
Shazam!
Autonomous unmanned semi-secret spaceship, mystery non-missile not launched off the California coast, actual heavy Delta rocket bearing actually secret payload and all in the last few weeks.
Sounds like Skynet to me.
Now if a buff babe starts sprinting across the tarmac, grim of visage, tight of tank top, determinded to destroy said space ship, then we will know what's up.
Nov '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
The real secret is why we even still have NASA. I guess it was answered when Obama told them it was their job to reach out to the Muslim world. I once heard a fellow put it this way: the first 50 years of flight took us from Kittyhawk to the SR71. What has the subsequent 50 years gotten us? The TSA?
NASA should have us living on the moon by now, and the fact that they don't is appalling.
Aug '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
I'm adding that to the "Favourite Quotes" section of my Facebook profile!
Jul '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
What about that super-secret chewing gum that turns Muslims gay? Was that us or the Israelis?
Sep '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
Maybe the mission was to steal the Q36 Space Modulator from Marvin the Martian. And if Bugs was on board it could still be considered unmanned.
Yeah, I was really disappointed that Obama scrapped the next mission to the moon. I was really hoping man would go to Mars during my lifetime. Well, I was 9 years old when Neil Armstrong took his little stroll on the moon and the clock is ticking. I don't think I'll be around to see it. Man can't make any leaps unless he takes a few small steps first.
Jun '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
I believe the only secrets that are still held sacred by the government are (1) the cure for the common cold and (2) the super double secret device that allows all cars to get 100 mpg (with the exception of the full-size Hummer, which only gets 90 mpg). [Damn that big oil lobby!!]
Either the government or Julian Assange have pretty well disclosed everything else.
Edited on Dec 3, 2010 at 1:00pmOct '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
Questions:
1) Did the government uncover a Stargate in the shadows of Giza? Is the X-37b based on alien technology? I'm hoping that the aliens are arsenic-based life forms.
2) Unmanned? Did they use Wii or Xbox technology to drive it for 6 months? Instead of NASA developing technology for civilian use, I think its time we leveraged civilian technology in space.
Aug '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
The gum, that was us, Jack Donaghy built version 1.0 as a gay bomb that made the enemy 'go totally gay-bones for each other".
Unfortunately it deployed while he and Dick Cheney were in Cheney's super-secret war bunker...
Sounds like they worked out the kinks.
Dec '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
Thanks for the laugh, Louie! Well played.
Aug '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
Not me, Tina Fey, Palin's nemesis. From 30 Rock, Season Two, Episode 15.
If you have Netflix you can stream it here, beginning at 21:40.
Added bonus: at the very beginning Jack coins the term Freedom Search.
Aug '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
What ? You don't know ?
...........dude..
Nov '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
Misthiocracy
I'm adding that to the "Favourite Quotes" section of my Facebook profile! · Dec 3 at 12:17pm
If I could remember who said it first I'd give props. I did add the TSA bit, to make it my own. ;-)
Jun '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
After reading Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff which details supplanting of the Air Force's space technology efforts by the highly public NASA efforts (and of course the cool guys who did it) I decided it was as likely as not that the AF simply continued their program without the scrutiny it had been getting. So the last 50 yrs may have actually produced more than we know. Some other fun thoughts.
"We" know exactly where Bin Laden is and have a bug in his ear.
The Wikileaks exposure is intentional and rife with disinformation.
What typical American kid goes "hiking" on the Iranian/Iraqi border? Appalacian Trail or Grand Canyon not good enough?
May '10
Re: How many secrets do we still have?
I was thinking, the payload's only 500 lbs.... Does this make sense? But if you are collecting radio data or images and you don't want to transmit them back, because that transmission could be monitored, then bringing everything back on a hundred hard drives, well, then, maybe it makes sense.