Now the military's space plane is back..

What was the purpose of the long mission I wonder, and it has to be the
least secret secret vehicle in history.
Why don't they use it for people or something more useful than peeking
around at Chinese space stations.


Brian

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Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
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In article ,
says...

What was the purpose of the long mission I wonder, and it has to be the
least secret secret vehicle in history.
Why don't they use it for people or something more useful than peeking
around at Chinese space stations.

It's a test vehicle. They wanted to see how long it could stay up and
still land safely. This is *not* a capability the space shuttle ever
had. The best way to prove you can do something is to just do it.
Doing it with a test vehicle insures that nothing of great value will be
lost if the test mission fails.

Along the same lines as this, Dragon's first visit to ISS carried only
cargo which could be easily replaced if the mission failed. You
wouldn't use Dragon's first mission to send up something very expensive
or irreplaceable.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

OK point taken, but lots of things can stay up and come down again,
presumably the Shuttle could not as it carried people and only enough
consumables for the missions envisaged.
Brian

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From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...

What was the purpose of the long mission I wonder, and it has to be the
least secret secret vehicle in history.
Why don't they use it for people or something more useful than peeking
around at Chinese space stations.

It's a test vehicle. They wanted to see how long it could stay up and
still land safely. This is *not* a capability the space shuttle ever
had. The best way to prove you can do something is to just do it.
Doing it with a test vehicle insures that nothing of great value will be
lost if the test mission fails.

Along the same lines as this, Dragon's first visit to ISS carried only
cargo which could be easily replaced if the mission failed. You
wouldn't use Dragon's first mission to send up something very expensive
or irreplaceable.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker

On 28/06/2012 13:07, Brian Gaff wrote:
What was the purpose of the long mission I wonder, and it has to be the
least secret secret vehicle in history.
Why don't they use it for people or something more useful than peeking
around at Chinese space stations.


Brian


I don't know about it being too secret - I remember one of the first
return to flight shuttle missions after Challenger being a top secret
affair. Even the crew wore lone ranger masks! All in jest though.

--
T