The supposed military mission of a satellite snatcher doesn’t make sense as by the late 70s both sides had the means to monitor all their satellites 24⁄7 and could detect if a satellite was taken or modified somehow, and could supply credible evidence to every other country, the UN, etc., of such an event. Needless to say, this would just lead to an escalation spiral and/or be an embarrassment.
Which is likely why the US never tried to snatch a Soviet/Russian satellite, and the capability remained unused.
Maybe the US Air Force and/or Pentagon knew this already but insisted anyways just so they could get a veto on the project they knew would be unaffordable on a purely civilian basis. i.e. this would imply they sabotaged NASA to preserve their importance.
The more prosaic reason for such an inefficient design is simple pork barrel politics.
The supposed military mission of a satellite snatcher doesn’t make sense as by the late 70s both sides had the means to monitor all their satellites 24⁄7 and could detect if a satellite was taken or modified somehow, and could supply credible evidence to every other country, the UN, etc., of such an event. Needless to say, this would just lead to an escalation spiral and/or be an embarrassment.
Which is likely why the US never tried to snatch a Soviet/Russian satellite, and the capability remained unused.
Maybe the US Air Force and/or Pentagon knew this already but insisted anyways just so they could get a veto on the project they knew would be unaffordable on a purely civilian basis. i.e. this would imply they sabotaged NASA to preserve their importance.
The more prosaic reason for such an inefficient design is simple pork barrel politics.