The National Directorate of Military Space Intelligence of the United States of America published documents and various photographs that relate to the program of military conquest of outer space that began in the 60s. The program is called the Inhabited Orbital Laboratory. According to the data, it was planned to send military astronauts to the station of small size.
According to official information, it was supposed to test "military expediency" of finding people in outer space. The real challenge at that time was the creation of a space station for reconnaissance and monitoring. Completed the program as prescribed by President Nixon in 1969 for reasons of the high cost of its implementation. Moreover, at this time successful results were obtained in launching reconnaissance satellites.
The program participants, while it was not canceled, were 17 experienced astronauts. Some of them later transferred to NASA, including participants on the very first flight of the shuttle Robert Kripen and Richard Truly. Richard subsequently took over as the space agency administrator.
Military satellites
During the Cold War, various programs of the US military to build intelligence satellites were aimed at collecting information about the USSR. The most important role was played by the CIA. Already in 1954, there were projects of artificial earth satellites aimed at such goals.
The disadvantage was the problem of transmitting information to Earth: this process took a lot of time and money, because after separating the capsule with films, the expensive equipment became completely useless. They tried to solve the problem by equipping an additional capsule. In the future, it became possible to use the power transmission system.
The USSR worked on weapons intended for the destruction of satellites. As technology progressed, satellites operating on the infrared spectrum principle appeared. All projects were covered by the “Top Secret” stamp, and we are starting to learn about many programs just now.
