It successfully sent into orbit a secret military payload that civilian experts said was almost certainly a spy satellite.

The shuttle Atlantis will be carrying a secret military payload.

The chosen picture looks unchanged despite its secret payload.

The secret payload carried aloft yesterday, Mr. Pike said, was most probably the early warning satellite.

Last month, when the Atlantis was being prepared to launch a secret military payload, technicians detected a similar hydrogen leak.

Columbia is now scheduled to carry a secret military payload aloft on July 1.

The Atlantis is scheduled to carry a secret military payload into orbit.

The military would not comment on the nature of the rocket's secret payload.

It will be carrying a secret military payload, one of several in the backlog of national security missions that has accumulated since the Challenger accident.

A Titan 4, the nation's largest rocket, was launched here early today with a secret military payload.