In 19 and 63, the US gubmint was working a souper-secret parallel path with NASA.
Going to the moon was all rainbows and stuff, but the real challenge was building an orbiting spy station that could take pretty pictures of the roo-skees.
They called it the MANNED ORBITING LABORATORY. it was the real reason for the Gemini project.
Spent lots of money on it, lots and lots. but it never got off the ground.
This unmanned spy shuttle is just the evolution of the MOL, good to see all that $$$$$ finally evolved into something that works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Orbiting_Laboratory
