Secret Space Plane to Launch Tomorrow On Second Secret Space Mission

"And here is the schedule for the next three years of the 'secret' space planes flights."

Cant hide if they wanted to.

Why are those guys in HAZMAT suits? Interesting.

I can't understand why popsci and the media insist on making these things public, like the fact that the plane is flying over these hot zones. Seems like a matter of national security, so letting everyone know the details is rather counterproductive and dangerous.

It really peeves me that the military/government keeps so many things "secret" or "classified." Inquiring minds want to know, and "secrets" are evidence of suspicious intent. Who do they think pays for this crap?

if we know about it, then even if it WAS secret at one point in time, now it's not. if it were, secret, this article wouldn't be here, because popsci wouldn't know about it.

how can it be secret or classified if it's on the front page of a science news site? no, the real classified part is that they've been doing this for longer than we think. they say it's only been up once before in a test flight, i doubt that it hasn't been used before.

@Solariken, as a prior service member, I have this to ask you. When you play poker, do you show everyone else at the table your hand?

This is how ALL countries in the world play this "game". The reason the government keeps secrets from it's citizens is because, newsflash, not everyone is a citizen! You couldn't keep a secret isolated to one country even if you wanted to.. so they make sure that there is as tight a lid on the secrets as possible.

And even things that are not secrets, if you get enough of them together add up to information that IS secret! It's better for everyone, if the government/military/special projects groups keep as much classified as possible, it's not to keep it away from you, it's to keep you safe.

I used to feel the same way! Trust me, I know exactly the feeling. But then I got assigned to projects/missions and I can never go back now. I've signed my life away so you don't have to. You will never be captured and tortured for information you don't know. That's not quite the case if you have been exposed to classified information. It may or may not happen, but if you know even part of what someone wants to know, you are a target. This is why the government keeps secrets from the public. For their own protection.

So why the cover up at Area 51 for the Roswell 1947 crash CodeZero? Are you telling me that humankind isn't ready yet to know the existence of exterrestrial life? Do you think we'll be ready once we nuke ourselves to pieces? Maybe in 500 years the aliens will come visit the zoo and can feed the monkeys, the monkeys being us, and the zoo being Earth.

And Fyi, if the government sending secret space shuttles up into space leads to Earth having a Battlecruiser in space, then I'm all for it. Just let me know when we have one capable of warp drive.

@ Dontcallmechief

Probably because the fumes/exhaust from the spacecraft is highly toxic or the potential to breathe it in is present.

An F-16 is loaded with hydrazine in it for use in it's Emergency Power Unit (EPU) and can become hazardous if the fuel in it leaks out or whatever.

I'm willing to bet there are all sorts of highly toxic chemicals used in that spacecraft, most of which will probably be used or vented off in space where it becomes mostly harmless to humans and the Earth's environment.

Classified eh? Well then, I didn't hear anything.

Classified?!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-212

I think it's likely that the craft is serving some intelligence-related purpose, but the fact that it has been seen between 40 north and 40 south does not prove this. It is physically impossible to orbit the earth without spending a significant part of your orbit in this region.

@cookiees453 I don't know any "extra" information about area51 "Groom Lake Air Force Base" or the coverup, but it wouldn't be outside of the realm of reality to simply be an experimental aircraft/spacecraft or other technology, possibly an experiment in stealth tech gone bad. Most governments in the world don't want the public to know of it's experiments and they REALLY don't want you to know about their failures that result in deaths.
Personally I believe that Area51 is now simply a research facility and the extended protection is just to keep people looking there. It's the magic act ruse. Keep looking at this hand, while the other hand does the real "tricks".

I don't think it has anything to do with the government holding aliens or keeping aliens from the public eye, that would most likely be impossible. But then again, you never know.

They are probably just building a genetic bomb capable of exterminating human. No big deal.

@Solariken, clearly it's not THAT secret considering that amateur astronomers were able to detect it's location. In any case would you have made The Manhattan Project public during it's development? Of course not, can you imagine the world outrage that would ensue had it become widely known before they'd developed atomic weapons? And what would have happened if it had become public and they were unable to develop the weapon? The United States would have been labeled as bad-guys with no atomic bombs in our arsenal to quell the anger that was certain to ensue from all countries not involved. The government lets just enough information go through to keep the general satisfied with speculation only, leaving the government to perform their experiments without getting harangued by everyone and their mothers.

And @Cookiees453, no I do not believe the public as a whole is ready or capable of handling the discovery of extra-terrestrial life. For many it would be a direct affront to god (or whatever form of a god one may believe in), if we can barely handle the existence of abortion as a society imagine what would happen if we were to find out that there exists another species which matches or rivals our intelligence (assuming that Area 51 IS an alien crash site they would have to posses a good amount of intelligence in order to have gotten there in the first place)? There would be mass hysteria, many people base their whole existence solely on the fact that we are the favorite species and for many their whole world would fall pieces. As of today there are 6,904,148,386 human beings currently alive on earth and it's silly to assume that all of them or even a majority of them are prepared to hear anything even remotely out of the ordinary.

IMO secret and classified simply mean in this case they are not giving FULL disclose of all the mission specs.
There is a slight space race going on. like someone said. do you show your hand in poker.

@Dr. Floydd
I agree with what you are talking about. discloser of extraterrestrial life. it would cause 80% of the world to flip their $$$$. not to mention most people just wouldn't believe it even if an grey big headed alien stuck a finger up their bum.

I would like to add that I REALLY do not think the USA gov knows of alien life. I think if they did we would see a larger priority on space exploration than we are. unless they know no matter what we are going to be smashed like bugs, we would be pouring FAR more money into alternative forms of energy and propulsion. No way we are going to fight off aliens with an oil based military. or earth based. I think if the USA government knew there were aliens they would be doing a lot more to secretly protect our solar system than spending a trillion bucks on an OIL WAR. MAYBE this space plane is really a cold fusion based proton laser cannon, but something tells me, its not!

sorry 1 more thought: Remember the TOP SECRET stealth fighter china is making. well they let people take cell phone photos of it. its all a game. This keeps the enemy guessing. but it lets them know we are up to something.

what are the engine specs of this plane? how many pounds of thrust can it produce. The wiki page on this plane is very vague.

extraterrestrial life??? yes everyone would freak, panic, riot and what not. in my openion, simply because we wouldn't have a plan. things are different if that information comes out and their is a whole plan about it.

i also don't know for sure if the usa knows of extraterrestrial life or not it's about 60/40.
for one if one country's government knows of them all the military giants would share this information and if a smaller country got the proof then they would surly pass that information on if nothing else.

but i do think i know what will happen and is un avoidable if the governments do find proof that they all cannot deny.

1. yes your right they would hide it from us until they have a plan already progressing before us.

2. that plan is probably going to include world unification, of some kind. possibly something like a New World Order" - Obama

3. in order to work amongst themselves, a currency would need to be laid out and put in place so that there would be a renationalized global economy so that the governments can spend their jillions of dollars on pods crafts or whatever is needed.

4. countries that are ran by religion and whos religion does not support alien life in it's doctrine would need to be dealt with. (kinda like Afghanistan) this holds true to any countries with agendas like that.

5. all militant countries and all countries possible would suddenly begin what looks like another technological revolution. with focus on robots, computers, shuttles, and weaponry, of course when someone "uncovers" this weaponry being developed, the rest of the countries would need to "stop them"
the technology is going to be what sets most of the process back, because of the restrictions we the public put on researching techniques, but the governments still would not go full public just to get this restriction possibly lifted, they will wait until they have a feasible defense or offense first.

as you can see it looks like i'm painting a picture of only things i want. but i'm not. all of those traits are also traits of a "world takeover" of the trilateral comm. and builderburg gp. like i said... 60/40

don't worry... be happy!

@inaka_rob, it would make sense that we would be spending more money to continue our space exploration efforts assuming that they had found intelligent extraterrestrial life, as is we have severely cut down on such expenditures (The Cold War with Russia caused a Space Race). In addition any budgetary concerns must be approved by someone and if there is a loop-hole utilized someone is certain to still notice, i.e. the Presidential power to send troops somewhere in an "emergency" so as to give Congress enough time to make a decision on whether or not to continue or pull out, meaning that despite having powers to supersede other parts of Government there is still someone there to notice and there is still a form of checks and balances. Therefore secret expenditures can't really exist because someone will be wondering where the money went.

i suspect they are wearing hazmat suits because that is probably the shuttle that just came back from space.

My, extraterrestrials visiting Earth! What high technology they must have! Think, the closest star system (other than the sun) is Alpha Centauri, about 4.3 to 4.5 light years away. That relatively short distance in the universe (compared to what extraterrestrials would probably have to travel) is quite long. If we were able to create a space craft that could travel the speed of light (the theoretical maximum velocity), it would take at least 4.3 ot 4.5 years (not to mention the incredible amount of time it would take to accelerate to that speed at such a rate as to not kill the inhabitants of the spacecraft or destroy the spacecraft itself and subsequent time to deccelerate). But, the technology that could enable such fantastic speeds is yet utter fantasy. It would take an incredible amount of energy (undoubtedly more than all of the powerplants in existence on Earth have ever produced) to make anything worth carrying a human being and all the things necessary for his continued existence anywhere near such a speed.
Not only that, there is the danger of the spacecraft being damaged by various flying particles, especially while flying at such speeds. All it took was a tiny flake of paint to seriously damage the windshield of the Space Shuttle Challenger. If a space ship were hit by a grain of sand while traveling at 90% of the speed of light (a current technological impossibility), it would be equivalent to be hit by a 400,000 ton weight falling at one hundred miles per hour. There is no way any spaceship could survive such a collision.
Using current ion thruster technology (the most efficient we have available) it would quite possibly take more than eighty-thousand years to travel to Alpha Centauri. And think, if these extraterrestrials will be (or already are) coming from much farther than that, what amazing technology they must have. I am already trembling in my boots!

In other words, it sounds utterly ridiculous to me.

LOL rpenri your probably right and if the don't keep it a secret the EPA would be handing out massive fines and causing public panic from some of the possible chemical exposures. Then there would be all those law suits. JK but in all seriousness I am glad our country is still pursuing our ability to gain an edge in space.