I did work on the Inertia Upper Stage (IUS) project. That was the booster that would take satellites from the shuttle bay into their final orbits.
A lot of the IUS specifications were classified because of the payloads that were intended. Even the name of the program that made those specifications and the name of the organization that was behind the program were classified.
Of course, that all kind of fell apart when _Deep Black_ was published, and a lot of code names (the uttering of which were absolutely verboten) were suddenly being bandied about on the evening news.
I was in the weird position of pretending to not know code names that were being discussed on broadcast TV.
Now, what'll really bake your noodle: the Soviets almost certainly knew those codenames, projects, etc.
There's tons of stuff that everyone in the security services knows but is still "classified" and verboten from public discourse or even private conversation.
Half the purpose of classified program rules is to keep the public from realizing how much money is being pissed away on ridiculous boondoggles.
A lot of the IUS specifications were classified because of the payloads that were intended. Even the name of the program that made those specifications and the name of the organization that was behind the program were classified.
Of course, that all kind of fell apart when _Deep Black_ was published, and a lot of code names (the uttering of which were absolutely verboten) were suddenly being bandied about on the evening news.
I was in the weird position of pretending to not know code names that were being discussed on broadcast TV.