Hi Ben,

The BA has a whole chapter in his book about the Hubble Space Telescope and misconceptions people have about it. You should read it. ***The BA isn't paying me to say this. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

There are also references to the HST on this website here. I hope the link works.

You asked:
"Was the Hubble the first satellite of that design in orbit, or did the military secretly...put up an earlier Hubble and use it to spy on people?"

I think the answer is no. Although the military does have very good spy satellites, they don't operate along the same principles as the Hubble. In short, the Hubble is not designed to "see" extreme specific details close up on the Earth's surface of even on the moon. My guess is: the military satellites probably use several advanced imaging technologies, some of which may be related to Hubble (which is now an older design,) but keep in mind that the two are designed to fulfill very different purposes.
Remember: Deep space is not the ground. The objectives are different.

Chip