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To: Moonman62
Did you know that was one of the primary capabilities of the Shuttle?

Actually I didn't. And which satellites were the intended targets?

My first assignment in the USAF was at VAFB working on the space shuttle program. That mission doesn't sound familiar. But, if we were going to snag Russian satellites it would have been above my classification at that time.

22 posted on 08/03/2016 10:29:39 AM PDT by Purdue77 (We got robbed!! Hillary for Prosecution and Prison.)
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To: Purdue77

It’s been awhile since I read about that, so I did some searching. It seems the long cross range glide capability was due to the military requirement to have a single orbit abort return to California after a launch at Vandenberg.

Apparently, in addition to that, there were military plans to do single orbit missions to snag satellites from polar orbits, both ours and theirs. Of course, there never was a Shuttle launch from Vandenberg, but the Shuttle was stuck with the large wings.


25 posted on 08/03/2016 11:17:52 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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