[cmyr]

If you're going to post quite sensationalist speculation please at least provide some attempt at a source or rationale. It doesn't really pass the sniff test that any goverment would bother with this banal subterfuge when they are more than capable of putting secret payloads into orbit, and have done so many times[1].

e.g. this, just the first relevant thing I could find https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/04/26/spy-satellite-successf...

[iraqmtpizza]

Secret payloads which are impossible to track via radar or optically either from the ground or via other satellites? Really? Tell me more.

[wongarsu]

There was Zuma, the classified satellite that officially failed to separate from the payload adapter and burned up in the atmosphere but was widely speculated to be a successful test of stealth satellite technology, with the satellite successfully reaching orbit and going dark. A lot of talk about us knowing very little, but everyone loved to show off this graphic from a stealth satellite patent [1]. Of course if the NRO does a good job and the technology works we will never know that it does.

1: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTW_zc_W0AEH3Un?format=jpg&name=...