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The U.S. military said on Tuesday it is now tracking 800 maneuverable satellites on a daily basis for possible collisions and expects to add 500 more non-maneuvering satellites by year's end. The U.S. Air Force began upgrading its ability to predict possible collisions in space after a dead Russian military communications satellite and a commercial U.S. satellite owned by Iridium collided on Feb. 10. General Kevin Chilton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, called the collision the "seminal event" in the satellite industry during the past year and said it destroyed any sense that space was so vast that collisions were...

There've been satellites orbiting Earth for half a century. But getting information to and from them is still a pain. Which is why Pentagon research arm Darpa is looking to finally hook the orbiting spacecraft up with reliable broadband connections. It's part of a larger movement to extend terrestrial networks into space, and eventually build an "Interplanetary Internet." In the meantime, we might even get less-than-crappy satellite internet service - if the project works out, of course. Darpa recently issued a request for information about supplying "persistent broadband ground connectivity for spacecraft in low-Earth orbit." The idea would be to...

In January 2007, the Chinese military launched a missile 500 miles into space, shattering an orbiting satellite. The assault was only a test that took out one of China's own weather satellites. But it sparked an international outcry over the country's willingness to use weapons in space. A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council called the test "inconsistent" with efforts for international cooperation. Military experts have since become concerned that space could become the next battleground for global conflicts. Of particular concern is the lack of visibility with some missile strikes, such as China's in 2007. Some experts say...

South Korea may buy four spy satellites over the next decade to monitor North Korea, the defence ministry said Wednesday. "Our ministry has been considering it but no decision has been made yet on who will be involved and details have yet to be fixed," a spokesman told AFP. He was commenting on a media report that said the ministry would forge technological cooperation with countries including Germany to secure the satellites. South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, quoting what it said was an internal ministry document, reported that the military plans to spend 600-700 billion won (514-600 million dollars) by...

Audio From Glenn Beck's Radio Program (Aired LIVE 10.22.09)- Did you know OnStar has the ability to shut off your engine, deflate your tires and listen to what you are saying inside your car?? It's true. They never used to use this technology, though it has been available- but now that the government is running GM, apparently they have decided to go ahead with it..Did we miss that press release? At the very least, it should concern you..with this kind of technology in the wrong hands.. Part 1-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDoDwEPKYMA Part 2-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhXEzJHWF1c

NASA has released this terrible image of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, as captured by Frank Culbertson—the commander of the International Space Station at the time. His words that day: Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else. Click on the image to zoom in. You can see downtown Manhattan—south, where the towers were—, with the East River and Brooklyn on the top, and the Hudson and New Jersey on the bottom.In the anniversary of the attack, let's take a few minutes to reflect on the stupidity of all violence,...

Israel, Fighter Jets, Submarines, Satellites and Iran By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem, Israel ---- July 5, 2009 ...... As Israel receives explicit consent from Saudi Arabia to use their airspace to two defend both nations from a nuclear Iran, Israel maintains several other options to defend herself from an Iran nuclear threat. The Sunday Times of London reported today that Israel Mossad director Meir Dagan has held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility of using Saudi Arabia airspace for a air strike to take out Iran's nuclear weapon manufacturing facilities. "The Saudis have tacitly agreed...

India's space agency plans to double its revenues to $120 million a year by increasing satellite launches to claim a bigger chunk of the global space business, the head of its space agency said on Friday. Last April, India sent 10 satellites into orbit from a single rocket, signalling its intention to expand into that business. It also dispatched its first unmanned moon mission last October to join the Asian space race in the footsteps of rival China. ISRO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 26 countries for launching satellites and joint research work, including Russia, France, Germany...

The BBC said Sunday that the satellites it uses to broadcast in Persian were being jammed from Iran, disrupting its reports on the hotly-disputed presidential election. The corporation said television and radio services had been affected from 1245 GMT Friday onwards by "heavy electronic jamming" which had become "progressively worse". Satellite technicians had traced the interference to Iran, it said. The satellites its uses in the Middle East to broadcast BBC Persian television to Iran were being affected, meaning that audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe would likely experience disruption. BBC Arabic television and other language services had...

On his trip to get a burger with Brian Williams at Five Guys this afternoon, the President appears to have learned of the existence of a Defense Department intelligence arm, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, from an agency employee also at the burger restaurant. "So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial..." Obama said, after the worker mentioned his employer, according to a video of the event. "We work with, uh, satellite imagery," the worker, Walter replied. A POLITICO reader caught the exchange, which starts around 5:45 on this C-SPAN video. The transcript: Obama: What do you do Walter?...

Obama: What do you do Walter? Walter: I work at, uh, NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing [sic] that? Walter: About six years Obama: Yea? Walter: Yes. Obama: You like it? Walter: I do, keeps me... Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial...uh... Walter: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery.. Obama: Right Walter: [unintelligible] ...support systems, so... Obama: Sounds like good work. Walter: Enjoy the weekend. Obama: Appreciate it.

Brazil and the U.S. have been arresting people who have been illegally using obsolete, but still functioning, U.S. Navy FLTSATCOM communications satellites. The FLTSATCOM (Fleet Satellite Communications System) were eight communications satellites launched between 1978-89. Two of the launches failed, and FLTSATCOM was replaced by the UFO in the 1990s. Although the FLTSATCOM birds were built to last for seven years, two of them are still operational twenty years later. As the navy stopped using FLTSATCOM in the late 1990s (shifting over to the more efficient UFO satellites), ham radio users in Brazil discovered that the FLTSATCOM satellites had no...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Ahmadinejad: Iran Developing New Rocket Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on April 14 that Iran intends to manufacture rockets with a range of 700-1,500 km that can carry heavier satellites into space than Iran has launched to date. Source: Fars, Iran, April 14, 2009 Posted at: 2009-04-16

Defying congressional opposition, the U.S. government on Tuesday said it would buy expensive new spy satellites and order more imagery from two commercial providers to plug gaps in satellite coverage. The plan, which analysts and former military officials estimate will cost around $10 billion, was announced by Dennis Blair, the retired Navy admiral who serves as President Barack Obama's Director of National Intelligence. The program will replace one that was initially awarded to Boeing Co, but was partially canceled three years ago when its costs soared billions of dollars over budget. Blair said satellite imagery was a core component of...

Mexico City - Mexico plans to begin construction this year on a space port to send satellites aloft, an official said Monday. The facility will be located in the southern state of Quintana Roo on the border with Belize, said state planning minister Jose Alberto Alonso Ovando. The location was chosen after extensive studies in part because of its proximity to the Equator, he said in an interview. Late last year, the Mexican National Congress approved the founding of a national space agency, Aexa. The agency's headquarters will be located in the state of Hidalgo from where it will oversee...

Imagine if all the hospitals, schools, churches, and government buildings that appear on online maps were nothing but blurs. That would not only reduce the usefulness of things like Google Maps and Google Earth, but it would be a huge undertaking for Google and would probably violate the First Amendment. But that's exactly what California Assemblyman Joel Anderson, a Republican from El Cajon, is proposing in a measure dubbed "AB-255." The measure would apply to Web site operators and online services that make "a virtual globe browser available to members of the public" and fails to define what that is....

Nasa's first dedicated mission to measure carbon dioxide from space has failed following a rocket malfunction. Officials said the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher - did not separate properly. Data indicates the spacecraft crashed into the ocean near Antarctica. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was intended to help pinpoint the key locations on our planet's surface where CO2 is being emitted and absorbed. Nasa officials confirmed the loss of the satellite at a press conference held at 1300 GMT. John Brunschwyler, from Orbital Sciences Corporation, the rocket's manufacturer, told...

NASA readied the launch early Tuesday of a satellite that will produce the first complete map of the Earth's human and natural sources of carbon dioxide, CO2, the gas most closely linked to climate change. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, was scheduled to be launched at 0951 GMT (1:51 am) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on board the Taurus XL rocket built by Orbital Science Corp., NASA said in a statement posted Monday on its website. It would be the first time NASA has used a Taurus rocket. NASA said the observatory would map the geographic distribution...

The appointment of John Deutch to an advisory panel on spy satellites violates President Obama’s pledge to hold everyone in his administration to the highest ethical standards. Deutch, who headed the CIA from May 1995 to December 1996, agreed in writing in January 2001 to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. Just after that, President Clinton pardoned him and 175 others as Clinton was leaving office. Deutch’s infraction was thus more serious than Tim Geithner’s or Tom Daschle’s failure to pay income taxes. “Deutch essentially walked away from what is one of...

Worst-ever orbital collision leads to calls for tighter regulation.A cloud of debris spreading through low Earth orbit following the collision of two satellites poses a new risk to many scientific missions and may signal the demise of the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA is monitoring the increased threat carefully, and if it is as bad as some fear, the agency may have to cancel the proposed shuttle-servicing mission slated for later this year. Without that mission, the telescope's days are numbered, even if none of the new debris comes anywhere close to it.At 04:56 GMT on 10 February an active communications...

In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a presumably defunct Russian Cosmos satellite ran into each other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage, officials said today. The international space station does not appear to be threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other military or civilian satellites. "They collided at an altitude of 790 kilometers (491 miles) over northern Siberia Tuesday about noon Washington time," said Nicholas Johnson, NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The...

Big satellites collide 500 miles over Siberia CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two big communications satellites collided in the first-ever crash of two intact spacecraft in orbit, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds and posing a slight risk to the international space station

Google has dismissed concerns that terrorists are using its free mapping technology to help them carry out attacks. The head of Google Earth said the program, which allows users to get a detailed bird's eye of practically any location on the planet, was not "tipping the balance in favour of the bad guys". It emerged last year that Iraqi insurgents planning attacks on a British base in Basra had used Google Earth images in which individual buildings inside the camp could be seen clearly. Google replaced the images with photographs that predated the construction of the base.

In a top secret operation, the U.S. Defense Dept. is conducting the first deep space inspection of a crippled U.S. military spacecraft. To do this, it is using sensors on two covert inspection satellites that have been prowling geosynchronous orbit for nearly three years. The failed satellite being examined is the $400 million U.S. Air Force/Northrop Grumman Defense Support Program DSP 23 missile warning satellite. It died in 2008 after being launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in November 2007 on the first operational Delta 4-Heavy booster. Since the U.S. is now demonstrating the ability to do such up close rendezvous...

OnStar, the unit behind General Motors' GPS-based in-vehicle security system, offers Stolen Vehicle Slowdown technology: An OnStar operator can send a signal to a vehicle, restricting its fuel and slowing it to 3-5 mph. The technology is available on about 1 million 2009 GM vehicles, OnStar spokesman Jim Kobus says. Another company, Virginia Beach-based StarChase, is field-testing its Pursuit Management System. It's a launcher on the front of a police car that fires projectiles that stick on a fleeing vehicle targeted by laser, enabling police to track it by GPS. The system, which has been tested by police in Columbus,...

By looking at satellite imagery, University of Maryland scientists hope to predict cholera epidemics four to six weeks before they actually happen. The research could help save lives worldwide, and could be used to develop other models to predict other seasonal or climate-driven infectious diseases. "Predicting the conditions that trigger cholera outbreaks in coastal regions could be very valuable for public health," said Rita Colwell, a University of Maryland scientist who has studied cholera for decades. "If we see this coming we could go into these areas with bottled water and medication to save lives." Cholera, a disease that gives...

Looks like a swarm of bees.

Whether it’s due to government restrictions, personal-privacy lawsuits or mistakes, Google Maps has slapped a "Prohibited" sign on the following 51 places. 1. The White House: Google Maps' images of the White House show a digitally erased version of the roof in order to obscure the air-defense and security assets that are in place. 5. PAVE PAWS in Cape Cod, Mass.: PAVE PAWS is the U.S. Air Force Space Command’s radar system for missile warning and space surveillance. There are two other installations besides the one in Cape Cod. 19. Bahrain: In August 2006, Bahrain's Ministry of Information instructed the...

A new feature on the Google Internet site allows anyone with a computer and Internet access to look at street-level views of towns and cities throughout the world. Although it's a useful tool for drivers planning car trips and curious folks who want to explore the globe, at least one lawsuit has been filed from a couple who said their privacy was violated after Google's cameras took a picture of their home as the company mapped the United States. Google offers the map service free of charge for people with access to a computer. After the company's Google Earth program...

ISS = International Space Station To see if the pair will in fact pass and be visible over your particular location, schedules and other important information are available from the website just below (heavens-above.com):http://www.heavens-above.com/ NASA-International Space Station (official website):http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/ Important note for first time Space Station observers: Unless the Station is scheduled to pass 20 or more (depending on your viewing location--obstructions, etc) degrees above the horizon, you may not see it at all. But if the pass IS high enough above your local horizon, it will 'look' like a very bright white star, w/ no blinking or colored lights...

From spaceweather.com for Monday, May 19, 2008: The 2008 "ISS Marathon" gets underway this week when the International Space Station spends three days (May 21-23) in almost-constant sunlight. Sky watchers in Europe and North America can see the bright spaceship gliding overhead two to four times each night. Please try our new and improved Simple Satellite Tracker to find out when to look. The station is not only bright and easy to see with the naked eye, but also it makes a fine target for backyard telescopes: "I took these pictures during the early morning hours of May 12th using...

A warship's missile hits its target to cheers from the control room Capt. R. M. Hendrickson stepped across the deck of the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie last Saturday afternoon to a bank of ballistic missile launch tubes, motioning to the particular 2-by-2-foot location from which a missile flew from the ship positioned at the time some 420 miles northwest of Hawaii.A modified tactical Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) launches from the USS Lake Erie impacting a non-functioning NRO satellite. (US Navy/AP) The missile hit its target, destroying a defective intelligence satellite that was falling toward Earth at 17,000 miles per...

Beijing is looking to take the lead in an increasingly militaristic space race, and it wants Washington to keep out. China plans to launch more than 10 spaceships and satellites this year, Agence France Presse has reported. This will be a record number of spacecraft for China, coming after 16 launches over the past two years. The announcement, made by China Academy of Space Technology chief Yang Baohua, comes at a time when tension is high over the military use of space. The United States announced late last week that it was preparing to shoot down a defunct reconnaissance satellite...

It has been one year since China took aim on its own nearly one-ton meteorological satellite by way of an anti-satellite (ASAT). That January 11, 2007 target practice spewed out a huge cloud of clutter - debris that remains a troublesome problem for operating satellites, as well as the International Space Station. Odds are that somebody’s satellite is due for a whacking - if it hasn’t already taken place.

Two orbiting U.S. spacecraft were forced to change course to avoid being damaged by the thousands of pieces of space debris produced after China carried out an anti-satellite weapon test one year ago today. The maneuvering, ordered by ground controllers and conducted several months ater the test, is an example of lingering problems caused by China's Jan. 11, 2007, missile firing in a bold demonstration of space weaponry against a weather satellite, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Ted Kresge, director of air, space and information operations at the Air Force Space Command in Colorado. Gen. Kresge, a F-15 figher pilot,...

Secrets and signsPatches for classified missions can sometimes provide otherwise-unavailable insights into the nature of those missions by Dwayne A. Day and Roger Guillemette Monday, January 7, 2008 One of the biggest movies currently in theaters is National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Like its predecessor, the movie is a lot of silliness and ’splosions, a nonstop chase as the hero travels around the world to decipher clues leading to a city of gold underneath Mount Rushmore. Much of the plot hinges upon the Freemasons, a secretive society that has left symbols with mysterious meanings, and that some people believe actually...

Project Vanguard represented the American commitment to place a satellite in orbit as part of its contribution to the International Geophysical Year. The project was managed by the Naval Research Laboratory and funded by the National Science Foundation. Vanguard 1, known as TV-3 before launch, was to have been placed in orbit on December 6, 1957. The satellite was recovered after the launch rocket malfunctioned almost immediately after ignition and crashed on the launchpad. It carries two radio transmitters to allow earth stations to track its flight; this would allow scientists to obtain data on the Earth's shape and variations...

France has a new, $400 million, satellite tracking system, and is using it to blackmail the United States. Using special radar and telescopes, the Graves Radar System (GRS) seeks to keep track of satellites and space debris. Currently, the largest satellite tracking system, the U.S. Defense Department's Space Surveillance Network (SSN), has been doing this for decades. But it has long been known that, while the SSN public catalog lists huge numbers of satellites and space debris, it leaves out many low flying American spy satellites. The new French system has discovered about two dozen of these, and has offered...

Russian Military Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that one of the United States most secretive spy satellites, the KH-13, targeting Iran was 'destroyed in its orbit' with its main power generator powered by the radioactive isotope Pu-238 surviving re-entry and crashing in a remote region of the South American Nation of Peru, and where hundreds are reported to be ill from radiation poisoning. Western media reports are stating that the US spy satellite debris hitting Peru was caused by a meteor, but which, according to these reports, would be 'impossible' as the size of 30-meter crater, if caused by a...

PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists on the Cassini mission to Saturn are poring through hundreds of images returned from the Sept. 10 flyby of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus. Pictures returned late Tuesday and early Wednesday show the moon's yin and yang--a white hemisphere resembling snow, and the other as black as tar. Images show a surface that is heavily cratered, along with the mountain ridge that runs along the moon's equator. Many of the close-up observations focused on studying the strange 20-kilometer high (12 mile) mountain ridge that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance. "The images are really stunning," said Tilmann...

Armchair explorers will now have the entire universe at their fingertips, thanks to Google's latest venture, Google Sky, a new free feature that's an application in the popular Google Earth program. Starting today, anyone with a computer can view a close-up of about 100 million galaxies and 200 million stars. To access Google Sky, available today, download the new Google Earth at http://earth.google.com. "This is an application that allows you to see the sky at very, very high resolution, as if you were just flying through the universe and seeing and visiting galaxies," said Chikai Ohazama, a Google product manager...

China’s newest ballistic missile submarine, the Jin-class vessel, has been spotted for the first time by a commercial satellite, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientists said July 5. The submarine was photographed in late 2006 south of the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, said Hans Kristensen, director of the FAS’s Nuclear Information Project. It appeared to be based on Russia’s Victor-3 model and, although photographs are unclear, resembles China’s early-1980s Xia-class submarines, said Kristensen, who spotted the long-anticipated vessel. The 436-foot Jin-class submarine probably will carry Julang-2 sea-launched ballistic missiles in its estimated 12 launch tubes. It...

A satellite image of China's new nuclear ballistic missile submarine is available on the Google Earth Internet site. Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), spotted the images, photographed by the commercial Quickbird satellite in late 2006. One photo is of what is apparently the new Type 094 Jin-class SSBN at the Xiaopingdao base near Dalian, FAS reported. The Jin-class is about 35 feet longer than the Xia-class SSBN, "primarily due to an extended mid-section of approximately 115 feet (35 meters) that houses the missile launch tubes and part of the...

At 5:28 PM EST on Jan. 11, 2007, a satellite arced over southern China. It was small — just 6 ft. long — a tiny object in the heavens, steadily bleeping its location to ground stations below, just as it had every day for the past seven years. And then it was gone, transformed into a cloud of debris hurtling at nearly 16,000 mph along the main thoroughfare used by orbiting spacecraft. It was not the start of the world's first war in space, but it could have been. It was just a test: The satellite was a defunct Chinese...

Vital satellites sitting ducks for missile attack 13:48 25 June 2007 NewScientist.com news service Robert Adler Vital communications and navigation satellites could be more vulnerable to missile attack than previously thought. After China's deliberate destruction of one of its own satellites in January 2007 (see China comes clean over shot-down satellite), two specialists in infrastructure vulnerability set out to determine whether a rogue state or terrorist group with access to an intermediate-range ballistic missile could also destroy a satellite. Using a satellite-tracking programme available on the internet, plus some university-level physics, they were able to recreate the Chinese shoot-down -...

In the face of Iran's race to obtain nuclear weapons and predictions that war with Syria is on the horizon, Israel strengthened its foothold in space pre-dawn Monday and successfully launched a spy satellite, which defense officials said granted the IDF unprecedented operational capabilities. The satellite, called Ofek 7, was launched from the Palmahim Air Force Base and successfully reached orbit. Officials said however that it would take several days to test the satellite's systems before it would be declared operational. The satellite was launched atop a Shavit missile. The successful launch came as a great relief for the defense...

BERKELEY, Calif. Human-rights activists are using high-resolution satellite cameras to keep watch over imperiled villages in the Darfur region of Sudan and posting the images online to enlist help preventing violence. The new Amnesty International Web site, http://www.eyesondarfur.org, was launched Wednesday in conjunction with a conference at the University of California, Berkeley. "We're hoping that by shining a light that we will deter the abuse from ever happening," said Ariela Blatter, director of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center for Amnesty International USA. Satellite images have been used before to document destruction in Darfur and elsewhere. But the latest project...

Space intel wars Defense officials say a turf war is shaping up that could diminish the capabilities of the government's most important space intelligence center, the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). The Air Force center, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was the key center in identifying China's secret anti-satellite weapons program and monitoring the provocative Jan. 11 test by China of an anti-satellite weapon. The officials say NASIC's space-threat analysis work is in danger as a result of a Defense Intelligence Agency reorganization plan that seeks to take the space-threat missions from NASIC, which...

So far, only the test satellite Giove-A is flying in orbit Europe's satellite-navigation system, Galileo, will have to be built with public funds if it is to be built at all, says the European Commission (EC).It has put forward proposals for the stumbling space project to be completed with taxpayers' money - not the private finance as was originally envisaged. The four billion euro (£2.7bn) system should be up and working by 2012. Its 30 satellites will beam radio signals to receivers on the ground, helping users pinpoint their locations. The recommendation now to construct the whole system -...

Satellites solve mystery of low gravity over Canada 20:16 10 May 2007 NewScientist.com news service Kelly Young The GRACE satellites have detected changes in the gravitational field over regions of Canada that can be attributed to the crust bouncing back after the melting of a glacier 20,000 years ago and convection in Earth's mantle (Illustration: Science/M Tamisiea) If it seems Canadians weigh less than their American neighbours, they do – but not for the reasons you might think. A large swath of Canada actually boasts lower gravity than its surroundings. Researchers have puzzled for years over whether this was due...