From: mvp@web1.calweb.com   
      
   In article <10ebed87-d18f-47d7-a549-8dc837699b7d@googlegroups.com>,   
   frank scrooby   wrote:   
   >Greets,   
   >   
   >A commonly held fact (or is it an assumption?) is that an ICBM   
   >or launch vehicle launch is impossible to hide.   
   >   
   >Is this actually true?   
      
   How big?   
      
   I think the air-launch ones, like Orbital Sciences used to do,   
   could easily get missed.  Bigger, and you're releasing enough   
   energy that notice is going to be taken.   
      
   Now, if you only need to hide it before launch, and don't care   
   who knows about it afterwards, and want something *really*   
   *big*, it's hard to beat the Orion concept, as in Niven &   
   Pournelle's space battleship _The Archangel Michael_.   
      
   --   
   Mike Van Pelt       |  "I don't advise it unless you're nuts."   
   mvp at calweb.com   |   -- Ray Wilkinson, after riding out Hurricane   
   KE6BVH              |      Ike on Surfside Beach in Galveston   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)