Start with "janes" military books. Look up US missile launch sites. We only have two that can launch orbital launches. Kennedy, handles all geo-syncronous launches and Vandenburg Air Force Base, which handles all polar orbit launches. Watch thier launch scheduals. They will give dates and the payload will be listed as military. I trust Gates, he will say what he can, considering the constraints he is under. He will not go on live TV and trash his boss. We are short 2 or 3 geo-sync birds. IF we started today to put one up it would take 5-7 years to launch that bird from the time congress approves it. The birds are all built from scratch, no off the shelf toys. Mutiple retundtant systems etc. The one that I was involved with (never launched, Clinton would not fund the 10 million dollar launch vehical. That bird was built, ground sites completed, software etc done. Total cost at the time was right around 70 billion, it rotted away.) took 5 years. Not launching that bird effectivly shut down every counter-terrorism site we had that used space based toys. You saw the results on 9/11. Look up about Bobby Iman. Read his story. He was one of the directors that I worked for, career Navel intell man. The Re-bum-Li-Cans want ed him to run for President after Reagan he refused. He said he did not wish to put his family through that hell and he also wanted to be honest, not a good idea for a politition. Layoutshooter
