On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:07:25 -0500, John H
wrote:

"They" refers to the existence of which - high school friends or that sort of
thing?

Just wonderin'.

The high school friend definitely exists. :-)

Trying to confirm the existence of a classified launch is, uhhhh,
errrr, classified...

The issue as I understand it, is that most of the classified launches
are related to intelligence gathering satellites of various types.
These satellites use stealth coatings which make them difficult to
spot and track unless you know the exact orbital parameters. Some of
those parameters can be deduced from the time and location of the
launch so there is never any kind of pre-announcement or launch
confirmation (or so it is rumored).

Maybe the shadow knows for sure. :-)