Air Force secret plane......

[dad911]

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/28/774010986/secret-air-force-space-plane-lands-after-more-than-2-years-in-orbit?ft=nprml&f=1001&fbclid=IwAR35-YI5oCau48lkdt8NQDQ4fDLRAHUx6cMy0mSN7inkWcsBPsMyBF6 gNo8



This is cool, did we know about it before?

[onewhippedpuppy]

It’s been known for a while, has done multiple 12+ month secret missions in space. Cool stuff.

[pwd72s]

Release of info designed to make some people nervous.

[BeyGon]

If we now know about it the russians russians russian, chinese and Koreans have known about it since launch

[kach22i]

Cool stuff.

[GH85Carrera]

I hope we have lots of other secret aircraft that have amazing capabilities. Thinks that keep the ruskies and chinese sleepless at night.

[BK911]

can it disappear?

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by BK911

can it disappear?

Yep, it disappears a lot of money into a black box at the Pentagon.

[dad911]

Depending on what it does, the cost may be well worth it. I suspect we will never know.

Might be a money maker selling images to google for google earth.

[sammyg2]

My son has been telling me all about that thing for several years. Missions, construction, capability.
Evidently the space engineering community has their own underground.

[unclebilly]

All that time in orbit and not one piece of lost luggage... simply amazing. See that United?

[Chocaholic]

It's a secret vessel for delivering pallets of cash to Putin. -CNN

(kidding).

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by dad911

Depending on what it does, the cost may be well worth it. I suspect we will never know.

Might be a money maker selling images to google for google earth.

The vast majority of images Google Earth and Bing use are from airplanes. Microsoft bought several mapping companies, and some of the big camera and equipment makers. We had a photogrammetric scanner. The price of the bulbs went from 35 bucks to 400 bucks after Microsoft bought that company.

Google makes camera systems that only they get to use. So does BING. They fly the entire country on a constant basis with airplanes. They may use a few satellites but it almost impossible to get the high res high detail of cities with anything way out in space unless you have US government money.

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Originally Posted by dad911

. . .

Might be a money maker selling images to google for google earth.

Or an on location movie set for space porn. Imagine how much $$$$ that would produce!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

The vast majority of images Google Earth and Bing use are from airplanes. Microsoft bought several mapping companies, and some of the big camera and equipment makers. We had a photogrammetric scanner. The price of the bulbs went from 35 bucks to 400 bucks after Microsoft bought that company.

Google makes camera systems that only they get to use. So does BING. They fly the entire country on a constant basis with airplanes. They may use a few satellites but it almost impossible to get the high res high detail of cities with anything way out in space unless you have US government money.

Cool, interesting info, thanks for sharing.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Rawknees'Turbo

Or an on location movie set for space porn. Imagine how much $$$$ that would produce!

[flatbutt]

two years in orbit and none of the other space agencies spotted it?

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

two years in orbit and none of the other space agencies spotted it?

Maybe not other space agencies, but this Dutch Astronomer regularly located it in space and took photographs. The AF would change the orbit and he would go looking for it again.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/amateur-astronomer-military-space-plane-orbit

[Rawknees'Turbo]

John70T, is that a real pic/true data (not a faked joke)? If so, it really says something about what the overwhelming majority of consumers are interested in.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Rawknees'Turbo

John70T, is that a real pic/true data (not a faked joke)? If so, it really says something about what the overwhelming majority of consumers are interested in.

One of my friends claims the VCR, and DVD were invented for the Porn industry, and the internet was the biggest invention of the Porn industry.

That chart is rather unfair. The airplane is far more useful of a tool of the modern age than it makes it look like. It has always been expensive to fly. I preume Pornhub is free, just a guess. Free access and something anyone in the free world can go to, yea, that is gonna have a lot of users.