Unbeknownst to most Americans at the time, the U.S. Air Force did have a partnership with N.A.S.A. in the 1980s to produce and launch a special version of the Space Shuttle stack, similar to the "classified" experimental shuttles depicted in the film. The U.S. Air Force built a completely independent shuttle launch complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, intended for missions during which the shuttles would place military and intelligence agencies' spy satellites into polar orbits around Earth. The government also funded and developed special, lightweight "Filament-Wound" Solid Rocket Boosters for these proposed missions, being lighter in weight, thus more powerful than the standard shuttle stack's SRBs, able to place heavier payloads into more distant orbits. The "military shuttle" program was cancelled soon after the Challenger disaster in 1986.

Film

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