Secret space launches are taking place with regularity today. We sort of expect this since everyone knows that there are all sorts of spy satellites being launched from many different countries. But this has been going on a lot longer than most of us suspect. The U.S. decided in the early 1960s, in May 1963 to be even more precise, to launch 480 million tiny copper needles into space that would create a ring around the Earth. Sounds like a crazy idea that makes no sense doesn't it? You have to remember that we didn't have the communication satellites in orbit that we do today and it was the cold war. We were worried that our communications would be cut off. The undersea cables were vulnerable and if they were cut the only way to send a communication would be to bounce it off the Ionosphere which was unreliable. The first rocket failed at launch, but a second was sent up with it's cargo of needles a few days later and it successfully completed it's task. Human beings had created an artificial ring around the Earth. The whole operation was known as Project West Ford. The needles thinner than a human hair but provided a means for reflecting radio signals. The needles didn't do their job very well and as they dispersed into orbit the data rate became so slow as to be unsuitable. The idea seemed good on paper, but as a practical matter, it was a failure.

There is a building in the heart of Moscow that used to be top secret. It was not easy to get to, even though it was located in that huge city. One had to pass several buildings, get through a huge fence and traverse dark corridors with electronic devices in them. The secret building was the Russian Institute of Medico-Biologic Problems. During the cold war a project took place there that could have changed life as we know it today. The building is dedicated to space medicine, but back then two of the Soviet Union's greatest scientists, Korolev and Keldish, began work on a manned mission to Mars. Although they never succeeded with the trip, they did learn some interesting things and they also built a very interesting landing capsule. They found out that people could sleep in a vertical position and do it comfortably for over a year. The landing capsule is said to be unique and had special structures to make it easier for the cosmonauts to move around. We will never know how close they came to completing their Mar's ship.

NASA getting ready to launch

In 1963 Robert MacNamara, the then Secretary of Defense, committed to building a space station. It was an U.S. Air Force Project known as MOL. MOL stood for Manned Orbiting laboratory. Was it really a laboratory or was it going to be something else? The idea was to boost the station into orbit using a Titan III. The station would have been able to hold two people. It seems to me that the station would have been more of a surveillance station than a lab, but again we will never know because the costs of the Vietnam War forced the government to cancel the project. They felt that they just didn't have the money at the time to pursue this.

Secret Russian reconnaissance spacecraft have been launched for many years, usually from Russia's northern facility which is located in Plesetsk. The satellites are know as Yantar which means amber. The reason that the secret launches are conducted from this location is that a launch from this area allows the satellite to reach an orbit that will give full global coverage. This is perfect for a recon satellite. This space port is now a civilian facility and is the spot where Sputnik was launched from and where the great Yuri Gagarin took from in Vostok 1. The civilian agency that runs this facility is know as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviacosmos.

There has been a claim made that a secret U.S. space system had been developed, deployed and finally put in moth balls, all without the knowledge of the Congress of the United States or the people. The system was known as the Blackstar orbiter. When the system was retired it was stored at the infamous area 51, at least this is according to an article in Aviation Week & Space Technology. The magazine claims that this system, which is two stages to orbit, could place a space plane in orbit. This system was designed in the 1980's. Here is how it was said to work. Supposedly a mother ship about the size of a large bomber carried a smaller ship that could go into orbit. The space plane was capable of landing at any airstrip with a long enough runway. Is this why we retired the SR-71 Blackbirds? Was this orbiter retired in turn because of the development of the Aurora, a plane that is said to be capable of orbital flight, that the government denies exists? By the way, some people don't believe that the article is factual. If you go to The Space Review on the web, you will find an article that takes issue with the Aviation Week article. Who is correct, is this disinformation, who can tell? I tend to believe that Blackstar existed because I have heard of other advanced technology being used and retired without us ever knowing it existed.

China has been running a secret space program for a while now. We really didn't know much about it and still much of it is secret, but last year, in 2006, the Chinese opened up their space facilities to a tour by foreign journalists. Astronauts were on hand and the journalists were carefully taken to different sections of the space center. China would like to take part in the U.S. aerospace conferences and gain a role in the International Space Station. This would greatly increase China's world standing in space related projects.

I have only scratched the surface with the things that I have talked about in this short article and I will revisit the world of secret space projects in the future, but as you can see, things are much more advanced than the average guy in the street knows. Again I have to say that I am thoroughly convinced that there are two space programs out there. One run by the U.S. Air Force, that may have already accomplished things that we can only dream of and the other run by NASA that is just a smoke screen for our real advances.