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A military space shuttle would be (if it existed) the oft-speculated-upon military equivalent of NASA's space shuttle. Most experts believe that it is extremely unlikely that NASA, the United States Department of Defense or any other Federal agency could keep the existence of such a spacecraft secret, given the extensive technical support and launching establishment that would be necessary to fly it.
It should however be noted that, early in the design phase of what eventually became the Space Shuttle, there were plans for the U.S. military to purchase some of the vehicles for its own purposes (mainly the servicing and crewing of proposed 'spy space stations'). The design requirements that thus emerged (in particular, the need for a longer-range glide capability, enabling the shuttle to land at specific U.S. Air Force bases), affected the eventual design of the vehicle, increasing its complexity. However, none of these 'Blue Shuttles' were ever built, and the U.S. military turned to increasingly sophisticated unmanned spy satellites as a more viable alternative.
Military space shuttles have, however, been featured in popular entertainment from time to time.
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