Posted on 06/20/2016 9:20:55 AM PDT by Purdue77
Last week, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched NROL-37, carrying its latest spy satellite into geosynchronous orbit via Delta IV-Heavy rocket. But it only took amateur space enthusiasts a few days to locate the mysterious new craft in the skies near Malaysia, over the Strait of Malacca.
While the contents and capabilities of the NROL-37 mission's payload are classified (the satellite is innocuously labeled US-268), its need to hitch a ride on the world's biggest rocket strongly suggests it is the seventh member of the Mentor/Orion family, an extra-large class of signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellites which help provide eavesdropping capability to US intelligence agencies.
It’s in geosynchronous orbit. It’s actually not “near” Malaya at all.
Is it possible for you to resize the picture by at least half this size? I screwed up.
You are being too literal, but you are correct. It’s just the way they refer to it. It wouldn’t make any sense to ordinary people to say it is located at 104 degrees east.
geosynchronous orbit? spy satellite? that would mean it would be 22,000 miles from what it was “spying” on and could only spy on one spot.
I thought spy satellites were usually low, polar orbit satellites so they could cover the whole Earth AND be as close as possible to what they were spying on.
Starlight
Star bright
First star
I see tonight
I wish I may
I wish I might
Ah Poo
You’re just a satellite!
That works. Thanks.
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No, it can spy on anything in its area of regard, that area in front of it and that area in its peripheral vision. All it has to do is reorient the sensor that it is using.
Ground recon, you’d be correct. SIGINT is different. Radio waves radiate out. You want to sit in one spot to get a section of the globe.
spot = area of regard, that area in front of it and that area in its peripheral vision
Have no Freepers made the connection that there are now two U.S. Of A. carriers in the Western Pacific and now we have a secret spy satellite basically hovering over the South China Sea?
Knock knock China.....
USA 268 - Satellite Information
Designation
Spacetrack catalog number 41584
COSPAR ID 2016-036-A
Name in Spacetrack catalog USA 268
Satellite Details
Orbit 35,612 x 36,003 km, 7.5°
Category unknown
Country/organisation of origin United States Intrinsic brightness (Magnitude) ? Launch Date (UTC) 11/06/2016
The spy satellite intercepts radio, TV, phone calls, radar, etc.
It is a giant dish antenna that is like a folded umbrella when in the rocket and opens up in orbit.
It is positioned 22,300 miles above the equator so it orbits at the same speed as the earth turns, once in 24 hours, so it seems to hover over the same spot on the equator.
I believe Russia launched a new one earlier this month.
If Heavens-Above is correct, Orbit 35,612 x 36,003 km, 7.5°, then the satellite is inclined 7.5° so it can see and hear higher toward the poles. This will track a figure 8 orbit.
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