The shuttle had plenty of military missions, and most are still classified. No, we never got the Vandenberg polar launches we were promised. And I don't think

The shuttle had plenty of military missions, and most are still classified. No, we never got the Vandenberg polar launches we were promised. And I don't think anyone anticipated just how quickly miniaturization and automation were going to advance when it was designed in the 70's or even as missions began in the 80's. Even autopilot was a controversial cutting edge technology that was excluded because of the focus on human centered missions. But back to military- it's not a coincidence that Hubble fit so perfectly in the shuttle cargo bay. (Hubble being a spare keyhole spy satellite body, with borrowed mirror fab tech.) But it would be interesting to know just what else the military had in mind, besides their not-so-secret ambitions for militarized manned space stations.