Spy satellite as big as Hubble !

[alpal]

See this:

Click here to load the video

Loading...

Published on Sep 1, 2019




A Tweet has shown us the capabilities or the current generation of US spy satellites. By analyzing the images shared the location of the satellite was determined and traced to USA-224 AKA NROL-49 - an image intelligence satellite that is derived from a design in the 1970's and also shares some design charactersitics with the Hubble Space Telescope.

[Wavytone]

More the other way around. Hubble was basically a modified K2 spy satellite pointing up instead of down. Unfortunately for NASA, much of the details on the design were classified military secrets and NASA had to discover these for themselves. If the CIA had been allowed to share what it knew, the stuff-up re the primary mirror and other technical issues with precision guidance would not have arisen.

Hmmm. Perhaps the cheesgrater should be renamed “baby Hubble”.

[alpal]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

More the other way around. Hubble was basically a modified K2 spy satellite pointing up instead of down. Unfortunately for NASA, much of the details on the design were classified military secrets and NASA had to discover these for themselves. If the CIA had been allowed to share what it knew, the stuff-up re the primary mirror and other technical issues with precision guidance would not have arisen.

Hmmm. Perhaps the cheesgrater should be renamed “baby Hubble”.

It's a pity they can't point this baby around at the heavens.
This is a Hubble I never knew about.
Maybe there are even more of them?
Notice an amateur astronomer with a 10" diameter telescope
has taken pictures of it and it looks like the Hubble!

cheers
Allan

[gary]

Perkin Elmer built the optics for the earlier KH-9 Hexagon "Keyhole"
spy satellites and the Hubble.

The first KH-11 was launched back in 1976 whereas the Hubble was
not launched until 1990.

It is believed about eighteen KH-11's have been launched over the
decades with primary mirrors up to 3.1m in diameter.

The KH-11 has undergone five major generational changes.

The one that took the imagery over Iran is over 8 years old.

There are also constellations of both high and low orbiting infrared
satellites used for detecting the heat plumes of missile launches
which intercommunicate with each other in a network which have
an entirely different architecture.

[alpal]

Originally Posted by gary

Perkin Elmer built the optics for the earlier KH-9 Hexagon "Keyhole"
spy satellites and the Hubble.

The first KH-11 was launched back in 1976 whereas the Hubble was
not launched until 1990.

It is believed about eighteen KH-11's have been launched over the
decades with primary mirrors up to 3.1m in diameter.

The KH-11 has undergone five major generational changes.

The one that took the imagery over Iran is over 8 years old.

There are also constellations of both high and low orbiting infrared
satellites used for detecting the heat plumes of missile launches
which intercommunicate with each other in a network which have
an entirely different architecture.

I wonder if they use high frame rate lucky imaging
to get their maximum resolution?

[xelasnave]

Would t it be nice to organise them in a dragon fly arrangement ..actually they could be all over the place but you could greatly multiply your effective exposure time.
I wonder if a y of those mirrors will turn up at surplus shed.
Alex

[alpal]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

Would t it be nice to organise them in a dragon fly arrangement ..actually they could be all over the place but you could greatly multiply your effective exposure time.
I wonder if a y of those mirrors will turn up at surplus shed.
Alex

The fact is that a lot of Hubble's work is incomplete -
some galaxies are missing whole sections on the data -
many galaxies have never been photographed by Hubble at all.

I wish we could have them used to take more deep sky pictures.
It seems that more money is spent on spying -
what is it - 18 Hubbles up there spying on the world instead?

[xelasnave]

Yes..just one more Hubble would be a big help.
It is difficult to imagine how you would use so many units for spying.
I expect if spying is your business you would probably say you need more.
Alex