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NASA Discovers Space Spies From the 60's
Saeed al-Sahaf writes "In a room forgotten for more than thirty years at NASA's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA recently found suits for space spies. Originally thought to be Gemini suits, the manufacturer determined that they were suits from a short-lived Cold War-era military program to put a manned reconnaissance station in space. Begun in 1964, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program was an Air Force initiative that would have sent Air Force astronauts to a space station in a Gemini capsule. After spending a few weeks in orbit, the crew would undock and return to Earth. An interesting blast from the past."
Because they don't want you to know what they really found.
Quoth TFA:
The spacesuit with identifying number 008 had the name "LAWYER" on the left sleeve. The suit was traced to Lt. Col. Richard E. Lawyer, a member of the first group recruited to be MOL astronauts in 1965. Records show that official ownership of this suit was transferred by NASA to the Smithsonian Institution in 1983. The suit itself has now been returned to the Smithsonian.
I thought the idea was to send lawyers in space WITHOUT environmental gear, sillies.
It's so quaint to see the evidence of paranoia and insecurity from back in the 1960s. Glad to be around in the 2000s.
Acting stupid isn't much fun when there's someone around who knows better
Articles like this make me look forward to the 1960's..
They were really advanced.. and we're lame - we just have Internets.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Holy smokes, they can build spaceships, land men on the moon, but they can't take an inventory? What else do they have laying around?
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
I guess that movie with Clint Eastwood was true after all!
The most innovative aspect of the space suit was that it's made so your tuxedo doesn't wrinkle under it.
Heh. Cooler than the suit with 'Lawyer' on the sleeve.
Man. THAT would take some explaining if Mars was already occupied...
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beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
They were so dedicated, they stayed at their positions until they died of thirst.
I think you mean, they were so desiccated from staying at their positions until they died of thirst.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
"Sounds to me like someone at NASA was building up their own private collection, and used a room they thought they had the only key to, not realizing there was a master key system in use."
I don't know about that. I work at a certain military facility, and in the building where I used to work there was a room way in the back of the basement, through two sets of locked doors, that used to contain a computer system I was responsible for and still had parts and manuals and such. I found out about it from someone who used to work there, and when I went to get access it was determined that not only did no one have access, but no one was even declared as being responsible for the area.
And this wasn't just a matter of not knowing who had the key. All the doors were tied into the central entry control system and there simply weren't any prox keys issued with access, aside from some master keys used by maintenance.
Keep in mind that this is a military base, and very few active duty types stick around for more than a few years in one assignment. The room in question was run by contractors, and hadn't been used over the span of a couple of contract transitions.
I did finally get access and found a whole rack of modems (1200 or 2400 baud, I forget) still powered up and ready. A power line monitor had run itself out of recording tape years before but kept going. To this day there are still racks of VAX spares and tape reels down there.
Oh, and it turned out at least one portion of that area WAS being accessed. Turns out the maintenance guys had figured out no one ever came down there and had turned an adjacent office area into their private lounge.
Anyway, never underestimate the ability of the government to lose things. Portions of buildings included.
I love the headline, inaccurate as it is.
NASA Discovers Space Spies From the 60's
No, NASA discovers SPACE SUITS from the 60's. It's not like there were a bunch of astronauts tucked away in a closet somewhere waiting for the "go" signal.