Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!mailrus!cwjcc!ukma!husc6!rice!titan!phil
From: phil@titan.rice.edu (William LeFebvre)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Notes on BURAN (the Shuttleskiy)
Message-ID: <2109@kalliope.rice.edu>
Date: 4 Nov 88 17:39:32 GMT
References: <9395@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <6400018@cpe>
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Reply-To: phil@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre)
Organization: Rice University, Houston
Lines: 23

In article <6400018@cpe> tif@cpe.UUCP writes:
>
>netxcom.UUCP!ewiles in cpe:sci.space.shuttle:
>>It is my understanding that NASA is *forbidden by it's charter* to have
>>classified information.
>
>Okay, so tell me all about STS-27.  Wouldn't that be considered classified?

As I understand it, there was a big debate between NASA and the DoD over
just how classified the classified shuttle flights would be.  DoD wanted
everything about them to be classified and NASA said "we just can't
operate that way".  The end result is this weird hodge-podge of classified
and unclassified ("red" and "black" are so much easier to type)
information.  For example, the date of the launch is public but the exact
time is classified.  Once the launch happens, the exact time it was
launched becomes unclassified, but the intended time (I believe) remains
classified.  We can know how many and which people make up the crew, but
the inclination and duration are classified.  And so on.

			William LeFebvre
			Department of Computer Science
			Rice University
			<phil@Rice.edu>