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A comment on James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in space, million miles away. Parent comment

Re:James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in spa... by beerandt on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @07:40PM (#30080186)
The shuttle had plenty of military missions, and most are still classified.

No, we never got the Vandenberg polar launches we were promised.

And I don't think anyone anticipated just how quickly miniaturization and automation were going to advance when it was designed in the 70's or even as missions began in the 80's.

Even autopilot was a controversial cutting edge technology that was excluded because of the focus on human centered missions.

But back to military- it's not a coincidence that Hubble fit so perfectly in the shuttle cargo bay.

(Hubble being a spare keyhole spy satellite body, with borrowed mirror fab tech.)

But it would be interesting to know just what else the military had in mind, besides their not-so-secret ambitions for militarized manned space stations.

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Re:James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in spa... by Buttons840 on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @07:56PM (#30080302)
> But back to military- it's not a coincidence that Hubble fit so perfectly in the shuttle cargo bay.

I assume Hubble was built that size because it would fit? No coincidence indeed. And what does that have to do with the military?

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Re:James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in spa... by zargon on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @08:27PM (#30080506)
> what does that have to do with the military?

Hubble is a military spy satelite design.

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Re:James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in spa... by c0npr on Wednesday January 26, 2022 @12:10AM (#30082003)
Not exactly, I think they just use a specific mirror design (2.4m dia.) because they are already manufacturing them to be used in spy satellites.
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Re:James Webb telescope reaches its final destination in spa... by beerandt on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @10:18PM (#30081242)
Development of which presumably predated or coincided with setting the design parameters for the shuttle.
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