alt Hacker NewsIIRC this could also snatch a satellite using the same profile, with no warning.
Also some in the Soviet leadership were very scared the shuttle could carry nukes clandestinely, then during an ostensibly routine mission change inclination using its wings and decapitate Moscow with no prior warning.
Well, that was essentially the later-stage X-20 Dyna Soar mission, as well as its follow-ons for a fews years after.
Until each side accumulated enough ICBM nukes that it was clear mutually-assured destruction would dominate.