The Nation - News from Dec. 5, 1988

The five space shuttle astronauts, silently circling the globe every 90 minutes, worked through a third day in space with no word when the covert military flight over the Soviet Union might end. A mammoth spy satellite reportedly carried into orbit by Atlantis may have been already deployed but NASA refused to discuss the flight plan, the status of the cargo or any other aspect of the cloak-and-dagger operation in the days before Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s visit to New York. “This particular spy in the sky was many months in preparation,” Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov told United Press International. “I don’t think we have much to hide actually.” Atlantis is expected to land this week at Edwards Air Force Base in California.