U.S. Satellites Outnumber Rest of World

The News Herald ^ | Dec 7, 2005 | KATHERINE SHRADER (AP)

[shooter223]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States has 413 satellites in space snooping for the government, checking on the weather and relaying the latest pop music, a new database says. That's more than the 382 the rest of the world has spinning above the Earth.

The inventory, developed by the Union of Concerned Scientists and released Wednesday, provides details on some of the Pentagon's most secret satellites, which may gather images in the dark or take high-resolution pictures from 12,000 miles away.

"Until now, the general public didn't have easy access to information about all active satellites," said Dr. Laura Grego, a Cambridge astrophysicist who was on a team that spent several years compiling information on the nearly 800 active satellites. "No one owns space, so everyone has a right to know what's up there."

[shooter223]

Perhaps most controversially, the repository includes what's known about top-secret spy satellites run by the U.S. and other governments..............Union of Concerned Scientists? ...........aren't they the global warming clowns?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

As long as they keep bringing me my DirecTV.

[steel_resolve]

"No one owns space, so everyone has a right to know what's up there."

Hmmm, this smacks of Rockefeller warning Syria and Iran that the US is getting ready to attack Iraq. WTF is up with people willing to compromise our security out of spite?!?

[VeniVidiVici]

"No one owns space, so everyone has a right to know what's up there."

This statement is just so ridiculous.

[Abathar]

""Until now, the general public didn't have easy access to information about all active satellites," said Dr. Laura Grego, a Cambridge astrophysicist "

And it should be kept that way you moron. What our defense department does up there is and always should be need to know only.

[CaptRon]

I think they are 'concerned' about just about anything done by the United States.

[Conservomax]

Someone has to say it:

All your satellites are belong to us.

[Eagles Talon IV]

And it's all that #$@*&^ Bush's fault!!

Actually I'm delighted we have the lead in satellites. It would portend the end of everything if we should ever fall behind in this area by allowing a "satellite gap" to develop.

[babyface00]

U.S. Satellites Outnumber Rest of World

So?

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

No one owns space, so everyone has a right to know what's up there."

No one owns Alpha Centauri either, so now do we all have a right to know what's there?

[Mugwump]

Right. It isn't fair that the US hogs all that satellite space up there. Kofi says so. Give half of all out technology to Africa. And America has to forget 33 percent of the knowledge it ever had. That will make up for all the oppression of the Third World by the bourgeois buggy-eyed running-dog capitalist pig oppressors of the West -- I mean the United States.
(/sarc)

Jeez, I hate this stuff!

[TexasCajun]

China says thanks Slick!

[Malsua]

The National Reconnaissance Office has asked the Justice Department to investigate the leak of other general information about the Misty program one year ago. Those details were published in news reports after three Democratic senators cryptically questioned the program's price and merits during a Senate debate.

Hmm, lessee...Leahy, Durbin and Kennedy? Selling us down the river again.

[RightWhale]

The UN has an agency located in Vienna that registers all satellites. Registration is entirely voluntary, so the records may not be up to date. The UN intends that a registration office will eventually morph into a UN control authority, that is, a quasi-governmental agency, which is quite an ambition for a non-governmental organization.

[Rodney King]

I hope we have 283 ASAT missiles.

[PeterPrinciple]

Here is there website:

http://www.ucsusa.org/

Need to know anything else?

[Eagle of Liberty]

Words below graph:

Note: Joint ventures are counted once under the country considered the primary partner.

So, I will bet that every joint venture that we have will add to our total.

[Ben Hecks]

The National Reconnaissance Office has asked the Justice Department to investigate the leak of other general information about the Misty program one year ago. Those details were published in news reports after three Democratic senators cryptically questioned the program's price and merits during a Senate debate.

Interesting that the identity of a non-covert CIA employee is apparently more important than a TS(SCI) National Security Office program.

[PeterPrinciple]

Who they are:

UCS is an independent nonprofit alliance of more than 100,000 concerned citizens and scientists. We augment rigorous scientific analysis with innovative thinking and committed citizen advocacy to build a cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world.

UCS's programs are the means by which we accomplish this. They are the pressure points translating vision into action. Through them, we connect the best scientific insights with the knowledge and support of an astute citizenry and apply them to the machinery of government at all levels—with results that have set a standard for effective advocacy for decades.

UCS was founded in 1969 by faculty members and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who were concerned about the misuse of science and technology in society. Their statement called for the redirection of scientific research to pressing environmental and social problems.

---

I like the part where they:

......augment rigorous scientific analysis with innovative thinking and committed citizen advocacy........

Founded in 1969, well there's the problem.

[b4its2late]

Ours should be the only ones up there. Time to start taking out the other ones. Who'd know? Especially if we took them out over a long period of time.....