During the course of its investigation into the recent solar-array deployment failure on the Telstar 14/Estrela do Sul 2 satellite, manufacturer Space Systems/Loral got U.S. Air Force help in the form of photographs of the satellite taken while it was in geostationary transfer orbit — shortly after it separated from its launch vehicle but before it made its way to its operating location. The classified photos, shown only to a handful of appropriately cleared Loral employees, were inconclusive, but that’s not the point. The point is that the Air Force was willing to provide such sensitive data in the first place.
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