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A comment on US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward orbital record. Parent comment

Re:US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward o... by lizardactivist on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @06:49PM (#31914097)
I think it's a weapon (projected radio, radar interference, etc.) rather than a tool for spying.
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Re:US military's mysterious X-37B space plane zooms toward o... by adhesive_wombat on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @07:09PM (#31914296)
Certainly not optical spying, it's not big enough because of diffraction limits. The old NRO telescopes are basically Hubbles that point down, so they have a mirror about 2 metres across and probably a resolution somewhat better than Hubble (30cm on the surface).

They even donated the chassis of some[1] to NASA once they were thoroughly obsolete. Imagine what the new ones can do if a Hubble-alike was such old hat it didn't even need to be secret.

Also imagine if we'd been able to put a fleet of Hubbles out there rather than just one!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_National_Reconnaissance_O...

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