spy satellites

This week in 2008, the threat to privacy was the DHS's domestic spy satellites — but more was happening on the copyright front, such as J. K. Rowling trying to use emotional appeals to block a Harry Potter guidebook and push silly legal theories like the idea that spoilers are copyright infringement.

The original Request For Information (RFI) for ESBMC2 makes clearer how close the system's ties are to the National Reconnaissance Office, secretive builder and operator of America's spy satellites, and to what is now known as the National Space Defense Center, formerly called JICSpOC. It notes that ...

GuardTop initially worked with the military and used CoolSeal on aircrafts to conceal them from spy satellites using infrared cameras, according to the Washington Post. The pilot project applied CoolSeal to one neighborhood street in each of the city's 15 council districts, according to KABC. The catch?

Space war is inevitable because today's modern militaries use space for everything, from spy satellites to a soldier on a mountaintop using satnav to figure out exactly where he or she is. “The reliance upon space is truly extraordinary in contemporary conflict,” says Schmitt. And in any war, one side will seek ...

Each year, Hal Behnke gets to share stories and reunite with a group of guys who had the challenging task of retrieving (while in midair) film canisters, about the size of a garbage can, that had been ejected from some of the earliest spy satellites. He belonged to a top secret Air Force unit in Hawaii -- 6594th ...

The United States has had its trouble with spy satellites, too. USA-193 was launched for the US National Reconnaissance Office in December 2006 but almost immediately the NRO lost control. Over time, its erratic orbit became a terminal descent, and the US government decided to take it down. It's not ...

Each year, Hal Behnke gets to share stories and reunite with a group of guys who had the challenging task of retrieving (while in midair) film canisters, about the size of a garbage can, that had been ejected from some of the earliest spy satellites. He belonged to a top secret Air Force unit in Hawaii -- 6594th ...

Instead of building a series of two, four or six satellites all using the same technology, Calvelli told me the builder and operator of the nation's spy satellites budgets for them in separate line items and builds new software or sensors or other subsystems. I wanted to make sure the NRO approach was not ...

Five previous Chinese launches in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 carried similar triplets of satellites into orbit under the Yaogan name, which is likely a codename for the country's military spy satellites. All of the earlier missions used Long March 4C rockets launched from Jiuquan to place satellite triplets into ...

The loss of a multi-billion-dollar satellite this past January is being attributed to engineering and testing errors made by aerospace and defense firm Northrop Grumman Corporation, according to a recently concluded investigation. As the Wall Street Journal reports, a payload adapter modified by Northrop ...

But as the administration has failed to proceed with the project as planned, concerns are growing about further delays to the project. The defense ministry earlier said it would deploy the military satellites in 2021 and operate five spy satellites by 2023. The project is worth 1 trillion won ($933 million).

Launches of U.S. government spy satellites are typically acknowledged by the National Reconnaissance Office, and the military usually releases limited information about its space missions. A Northrop Grumman spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Monday on the Wall Street Journal ...

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) released a draft request for proposal for the Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket, or RASR, program to boost “tiny” spy satellites into orbit. The NRO, which ovesees designing, building, launching, and maintaining America's intelligence satellites, is seeking ...

A small spacecraft built for the Russian military lifted off Thursday on top of a modified Soyuz booster, beginning a mission to reportedly test a compact Earth-imaging platform that could be used on future spy satellites. The lightweight payload rode a Soyuz 2-1v rocket into orbit from the Plesetsk ...

Langbroek, who tracks spy satellites and writes the blog SatTrackCam, has been posting re-entry predictions for Tiangong-1 since March 13, 2017. "We should not overdramatize the dangers," he said. An artist's illustration of China's Tiangong-1 space lab in Earth orbit. The 9.4-ton spacecraft is scheduled ...

With its constellation of spy satellites and other reconnaissance assets, NATO would notice Russia internally reinforcing its military forces on a scale required to mount a successful land invasion of the Baltics, thereby betraying the element of surprise. In contrast, with three mechanized divisions along the ...

Yet fake meteor showers could still impact spy satellites, which are not tracked and can dip as low as 158 miles. Low-earth orbit (that is, anything under 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from the Earth's surface) is also slated to become a lot busier in the coming years, Seitzer told Buzzfeed. Indeed, there are plans in ...

The NRO, a relatively unknown intelligence agency, runs American spy satellites and falls under the Department of Defense. Public federal court records do not show that Weed was criminally charged, and CNN was unable to reach him. The NRO declined to comment about potential damage from the ...

Adding a heavy lifter to its stable of small and medium commercial and defense rockets will enable Orbital to compete in a new market, one that handles higher orbiting communications satellites, heavier spy satellites and, potentially, human missions to space. Employing 200 engineers and technicians in ...

Barely 125 km from the Line of Actual Control, Ngari station gives China the capability to identify all Indian spy satellites over Tibet. New Delhi: An advanced satellite centre China has built in Tibet, barely 125 km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC), could be used to track, blind and potentially even destroy ...

The base – a “ground station” from which spy satellites are operated – used its surveillance technology to home in on calls associated with Thuraya satellite phones, which are often used in remote parts of the world where there is no access to conventional cellphone or landline networks. “We worked with ...

The Japanese surveillance fleet includes a mix of optical and radar spy satellites. The radar-equipped craft, including a satellite launched last year, can peer through clouds and darkness to collect all-weather reconnaissance imagery. Japan began the reconnaissance satellite program in 1998 in response ...

The US Air Force is about to abandon expensive surveillance aircrafts and satellites, opting for an information network out of concerns over Russia's and China's increased space capabilities. The United States has decided to ditch a $7 billion surveillance aircraft program in favor of an information network ...

Their mission is to ferret out threats to military and spy satellites and take actions to keep American interests safe in orbit. "It's that big transition point," the center's director, Col. Todd Brost, told The Gazette. The National Space Defense Center at Schriever Air Force Base has moved beyond war games, with ...

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. The capability would seriously jeopardize the U.S. fleet, including Global Positioning System satellites, military and civilian communications satellites, and spy satellites. But would either country use them? And if they did, would they risk even greater damage to ...

When SpaceX was competing to fly cargo to the International Space Station, Musk mocked his rival's rockets. Vying to launch spy satellites, SpaceX sued the US Air Force for a chance to bid on classified launches. Plotting a satellite internet constellation, he promised a network “an order of magnitude” more ...

WASHINGTON — An online advertisement titled “Think big, take risks, innovate!” is not a self-help seminar but a call to entrepreneurs to come do business with the National Reconnaissance Office. The NRO, whose mission is to design, build and launch classified spy satellites, wants to hear pitches from ...

Few people will speak openly about it, but we all know there are spy satellites in space tracking our every move. We also know some satellites are used for military purposes, even though the 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids the militarization of space. Then there's that other mega "-ization" — the ...

Orbital currently manufactures small and medium commercial and defense rockets. Adding a heavy lifter will enable Orbital to compete in a new market that handles higher orbiting communications satellites, heavier spy satellites and, potentially, human missions to space. When finished, Orbital's rocket will ...

The Japanese surveillance fleet includes a mix of optical and radar spy satellites. The radar-equipped craft can peer through clouds and darkness to collect all-weather reconnaissance imagery. Japan began the reconnaissance satellite program in 1998 in response to a North Korean missile test over ...