Free Republic

BETHESDA, Md., May 18, 2006 – It might not be a household name, like, say, the CIA, but the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is an integral part of the U.S. intelligence community. Satellite Image of Islamabad, Pakistan. Courtesy of National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency   Geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, is the collecting and analysis of satellite imagery of the earth's surface. The mission of the agency, headquartered here, is to provide that type of intelligence to support national security objectives. "If it's something manmade or natural on the face of the earth and it has national security implications, then we map it, chart...

The First Bush Space Policy Frank Sietzen, Jr. Tuesday, May 13, 2003 Today's action puts the first Bush administration 'stamp' on U.S. Space Policy, and while it is only the first policy action in an anticipated series, it has a clearly identifiable cast to its contents. The new space remote sensing policy released today by the National Security Council has a decidedly free market, conservative slant as it seeks to craft a new cooperative framework between U.S. federal users of space photography and the fledgling industry that is struggling to offer such services. Commercial sources of high resolution images...

Two months ago, after much lobbying by the biggest satellite company in North America, DigitalGlobe, the US government relaxed restrictions to allow for commercially available satellite imagery up to 25 cm resolution—twice as detailed as the previous limit of 50 cm. Now, the first commercial satellite set to capture these high-res images, DigitalGlobe's Worldview-3, will launch this Wednesday. The extra sharp images from Worldview-3 will greatly increase the maps' level of detail to the point where it can make out 10-inch objects, which means Google will soon be able to see “manholes and mailboxes” from its hired eyes in the...

Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) has found evidence consistent with allegations that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Government of Sudan-aligned (GoS) militias have apparently engaged in a campaign of systematic mass killing of civilians in Kadugli, South Kordofan. Under the Rome Statute and other international humanitarian law, the systematic killing of civilians in peace or war by their own government can constitute crimes against humanity. Based on an analysis of DigitalGlobe satellite imagery and eyewitness reports obtained by the Satellite Sentinel Project, SSP has identified a site consistent with mass graves in Kadugli. SSP has found evidence corroborating at least...

The high-resolution QuickBird satellite images of the tsunami impact on Sri Lanka are just a few of the images on the Digital Globe web site that made me stop and say "Wow!" For example, check out the images on the links below: