http://www.nytimes.c...-energy.html?_r=2

The phone call came like a bolt out of the blue, so to speak, in January 2011. On the other end of the line was someone from the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the nation’s fleet of spy satellites. They had some spare, unused “hardware” to get rid of. Was NASA interested?

Potentially very nice for NASA. The satellites need to be finished, and probably modified a bit because the needs are a bit different, but still will save NASA a lot of money if they can use these and help their project list a lot to get them into orbit cheaply and soon.

The sad side of course is that the NSA had two totally surplus extra satellites equal in grade the the Hubble. Gives you an idea just how trivial NASA's budget really is.

Jay