The 15th space shuttle mission (51-C) is the first all-military flight. The Discovery crew of Navy Capt. Thomas K. Mattingly (mission commander), Air Force Lt. Col. Loren J. Shriver (pilot), and Air Force mission specialists Lt. Col. Ellison S. Onizuka and Maj. Gary E. Payton, along with Marine Lt. Col. James F. Buchli, deploy a classified payload, believed to be a signals intelligence satellite.
When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine described the 150 aircraft used in Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he referenced many by name, including the F-35 and F-22 fighters and B-1 bomber. Not specified, however, were “remotely piloted drones,” among them a secretive aircraft spotted and photographed returning to Puerto…
