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Presumably that it can move around. Satellites don't carry much fuel and you can't keep repositioning them, so to get surveillance over an area you have to wait
by ZoFreX 12y ago
Presumably that it can move around. Satellites don't carry much fuel and you can't keep repositioning them, so to get surveillance over an area you have to wait for a satellite to be above it. Presumably this thing as it is a plane, and also because it returns to Earth after a relatively short time to pick up more fuel, can reposition much more rapidly.
- pokstad 12y agoI think another possibility may be the repairing of friendly satellites and spying on enemy satellites. Flying up to an enemy satellite without interrupting it may not break any treaties. The space shuttle was originally built with the intention to repair and launch spy satellites. This vehicle went into service around the same time the shuttle was being retired. Also, there may be some sort of metric being recorded that requires physical retrieval because of lack of bandwidth. Older satellites actually dumped film for later retrieval.