Message posted by JinTx on September 15, 2011 at 21:21:39 PST:
It is great to see NASA is still thinking about manned space flight with the announcement of the SLS launch system and releasing pics of welding of the first Orion capsule. They both got me thinking...if NASA, DARPA, or whoever wanted to test a large orbital plane like vehicle that had to be launched and could not be seen for security reasons, would they use Vandenberg to launch it? Or is there another launch facility far from prying eyes capable of these types of test launches? What if any role has Area51 or surrounding areas played into the space race by supporting any type of launched vehicle testing?
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