I was just reading 'Aviation Week' magazine for Dec. 10, 2007, and spotted an interesting anomaly, for those with a conspiratorial bent.
On p.23, there is a news note on the NASA Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. It states, "Glast has been diverted to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington for thermal-vacuum testing after being bumped by a classified spacecraft also under development by General Dynamics in Gilbert, Ariz." Plus, "Glast already has undergone successful vibration and electromagnetic field testing in Gilbert." (The news note does not mention whether the craft is to be returned to GD or sent directly to launch facilities.)
Like in the DAWN post, if I wanted to 'adjust' something on the spacecraft, this would be the perfect situation. It could be anything - 'shutter control', additional data streams, new software capabilities to be field tested, or various ways to assume control of the craft. It could even include small additional sensors.
So, just a 'heads up' in case of future peculiarities happening with this craft...
On p.23, there is a news note on the NASA Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. It states, "Glast has been diverted to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington for thermal-vacuum testing after being bumped by a classified spacecraft also under development by General Dynamics in Gilbert, Ariz." Plus, "Glast already has undergone successful vibration and electromagnetic field testing in Gilbert." (The news note does not mention whether the craft is to be returned to GD or sent directly to launch facilities.)
Like in the DAWN post, if I wanted to 'adjust' something on the spacecraft, this would be the perfect situation. It could be anything - 'shutter control', additional data streams, new software capabilities to be field tested, or various ways to assume control of the craft. It could even include small additional sensors.
So, just a 'heads up' in case of future peculiarities happening with this craft...