[FPSPACE] story on top secret DoD robot rendezvous mission to GEO

[Allen Thomson]

  > Also, did the sources say that MISTY/Prowler were totally successful ? My hazy recollection is that they weren't, and that was part of the interest-i.e. the 
attempt at a stealthy satellite wasn't in fact that stealthy ?

I have no idea about Prowler, but the picture that seems to make the most sense for MISTY is that it succeeded in doing what it was designed to do -- evade detection by Soviet radar and optical space surveillance sensors.  The problem was that the designers were provided with a seriously incomplete assessment of the worldwide "detection threat", amateur optical observers in particular.