Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Secret Space Program Shows Its Hand


'Who dumps technology more advanced than NASA on to NASA and thinks nothing of it? This admission of at least this segment of a secretive space program is quite revealing. It will probably slip by mainstream media, but sit up and take notice, this is a serious admission here.

The secretive government agency that flies spy satellites has made a stunning gift to NASA: two exquisite telescopes as big and powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope. They’ve never left the ground and are in storage in Rochester, N.Y.

It’s an unusual technology transfer from the military-intelligence space program to the better-known civilian space agency. It could be a boost for NASA’s troubled science program, which is groaning under the budgetary weight of the James Webb Space Telescope, still at least six years from launch.'

Read more: Secret Space Program Shows Its Hand