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The clandestine cargo carried into polar orbit Thursday aboard the first California-launched Delta 4-Heavy rocket was a crucial replacement satellite for the nation's surveillance and security network, amateur sky-watchers say.The sophisticated imaging bird follows a long line of Keyhole-type spacecraft that provide ultra-high resolution imagery for the U.S. intelligence community, according to hobbyists who track orbiting satellites with remarkable precision. Ever since the Delta 4-Heavy rocket fired away from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the amateur observers have been hunting for the new satellite to figure out its identity. The conventional wisdom before the launch said...

This is a two-parter: First part is the image of the region from space. Click on the image to go to the article, where you can download/view the large (7 MB) image of the whole region. Looking at this image, I figured Nam Co Lake, a high-altitude salt lake, would offer some nice vistas with snow-covered mountains in the background. I was correct. Click 'em all for full-size. (This is the 2nd part).

When the movie Star Wars came out in 1977, remember how many jokes were made about Luke and Han blazing away at Imperial fighters with the ack-ack guns on the Millennium Falcon? In the July 1998 issue of Spaceflight (the popular publication of the British Interplanetary Society), there's an article1 about the military version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and 5 between 1974 and 1977. (The name “Salyut” was applied to two entirely different space station programs, one military and the other civilian, which used completely different hardware built by different design bureaux.2 The...

America’s top four space agencies — NASA, the NRO, Space and Missile Systems Command and the Missile Defense Agency — are joining together to improve how they design, buy and build launchers, sensors and satellites. The memorandum of understanding — signed so far by the spy satellite builders and operators at NRO and the SMC folks — will help them “work together to develop and share best practices and lessons learned to take into account the health of the industrial-base, space systems acquisitions and to participate in forums that will improve performance such as the space quality improvement council and...

CAPE CANAVERA -- Delta 4 Rocket Blasts Off With U.S. Spy Agency's "Largest Satellite in the World" - Believed to be 328 Feet Wide *********************************************** ( not sure I believe that....)*************************************A powerful Delta 4 rocket roared to life and climbed away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Sunday evening on a high-priority mission to boost a National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite into orbit. Under a cloudy sky, the hydrogen-fueled engines in the three common core boosters of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 ignited with a rush of orange fire at 5:58 p.m. EST and quickly throttled up...

11/20/2010 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla -- The 45th Space Wing launch of a Delta IV-Heavy Launch Vehicle carrying a National Reconnaissance Office payload has been rescheduled to Nov. 21, 2010, at 5:58 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (2:58p.m. PST) from Space Launch Complex 37 here. Following the scrubbed Nov. 19 launch attempt, the launch team examined the port and starboard common core strap-on boosters in the areas where they received anomalous temperature data signatures during Friday's launch countdown. After inspections by engineers, it was determined that the temperature data signatures were caused by issues with two temperature sensors....

Lockheed Martin has submitted its proposal for the next phase of Space Fence, a program that will revamp the way the US Air Force identifies and tracks objects in space. Space Fence will replace the existing Air Force Space Surveillance System, or VHF Fence, which has been in service since the early 1960s. The new system’s initial operational capability is scheduled for 2015. The contract is valued at more than $3.5 billion. For this next phase of the Space Fence program, the Air Force will award up to two preliminary design review contracts worth up to a total of $214...

On 11 January, 2007, China military tested its anti-satellite weapon or ASAT by hitting Fengyun-1C, a derelict Chinese weather satellite. The satellite was smashed into at least 900 pieces. The experiment drew considerable international criticism. The reports were confirmed by the then National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. For the first known time in history, a missile launched from the ground destroyed an orbiting satellite. This provocative action by China highlighted a new paradigm shift in the worldwide military strategy.

Tomorrow the 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first launch of the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite. It was the beginnings of a satellite constellation that has been providing space-based infrared missile warning to our nation's leaders for four decades. On, Nov. 6, 1970 the launch of the maiden DSP spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Fla. was accomplished. During the last several decades, a dedicated team of scientists, engineers, acquisition specialists, civilian contractors and space professionals has ensured that the DSP system performed better than advertised and lasted much longer than designed....

NATO will offer Russia access to some US military satellite data in exchange for its participation in a missile shield project for continental Europe, a Moscow newspaper reported Friday. The offer will come as part of a broader deal to be extended to Russia at the NATO-Russia Council that immediately follows the 28-member Alliance's November 19-20 summit in Lisbon, Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted a NATO source as saying. NATO officials in Brussels could not immediately confirm the report. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accepted an invitation to attend the talks, which besides long-range missile defences will also focus on NATO's activities...

A project to give the U.S. Air Force enhanced space surveillance capability for detecting and tracking space objects has passed its system design review. The Raytheon Co. said the system design review of its "Space Fence" program included the prototyping of critical system elements to demonstrate increased technical and manufacturing readiness levels. "As our nation's defense becomes increasingly more dependent on the space domain, a system like Space Fence will be a critical component in the space surveillance network, tracking tens of thousands of objects daily," said David Gulla, vice president, National & Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense...

BEIJING: Pakistan is closely collaborating with China to launch a joint space communications satellite next year that will be a milestone in their friendship, the country's envoy here said today. The new satellite called Paksat-1R will bring immense economic benefits to Pakistan, Pakistani Ambassador to China, Masood Khan, said. He made the remarks while addressing an official function here to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC). The agreement to launch the satellite and set up a joint communications project was reached during Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's visit to China in 2008....

On August 9, China launched the remote sensing satellite Yaogan-10 (military designation: Jianbing) into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Situated in the northwest of Shanxi Province, the site is a space and defense launch facility reportedly used for testing the Chinese military’s intercontinental ballistic missiles and overland submarine-launched ballistic missiles (Globalsecurity.org). This event marks the sixth Chinese launch this year via the CZ-4C Chang Zheng-4C (Long March) launch vehicle and follows a surge in satellite launches that appear to reflect the Chinese determination to beef up its reconnaissance satellite network and end its dependence upon foreign satellite systems....

The number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom TV services in the U.S. fell for the first time ever in the second quarter, according to research firm SNL Kagan. The U.S. multichannel TV market lost 216,000 customers last quarter, vs. a gain of 378,000 a year ago. The total number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom video fell to 100.1 million in the second quarter, SNL Kagan says.

Scientists have identified a massive eruption from the sun in April that reached all the way to Earth and may be responsible for knocking out a satellite, creating a so-called "zombie satellite." The huge explosion of plasma and magnetic energy, called as a coronal mass ejection, occurred on April 3 and was observed by NASA's sun-watching STEREO spacecraft, according to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The laboratory released new images of the solar storm last week. The solar storm appears to have disabled the Intelsat communications satellite Galaxy 15, NRL officials said. Galaxy 15 lost contact with its ground controllers...

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15) of ISRO has successfully placed 5 satellites. The advanced CARTOSAT - 2B is the major payload accompanied by four auxiliary satellites. The interesting part of this launch is, particularly for Indian engineering academics is one of the satellite called STUDSAT, a pico-satellite weighing less than 1 kg, is made by students from a consortium of seven engineering colleges in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Few days back ISRO had launched RH200 rocket carrying payload developed by students from Vellore Institute of Technology University (VITU). This is clearly a big opportunity for space technology addicts, so they...

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C15) of ISRO has successfully placed 5 satellites. The advanced CARTOSAT - 2B is the major payload accompanied by four auxiliary satellites. The interesting part of this launch is, particularly for Indian engineering academics is one of the satellite called STUDSAT, a pico-satellite weighing less than 1 kg, is made by students from a consortium of seven engineering colleges in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Few days back ISRO had launched RH200 rocket carrying payload developed by students from Vellore Institute of Technology University (VITU). This is clearly a big opportunity for space technology addicts, so they...

Demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon successfully tracked a ground-based missile launch in a systems test last month. Tracking data generated by satellite sensors was transmitted to the Missile Defense Integration and Operation Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., which serves as the ground station for the two demonstration spacecraft, Northrop Grumman said in a news release "The STSS satellites operated as expected and the system generated high-quality track data during the boost phase in this first missile test of capabilities," said Gabe Watson, vice president, missile defense and missile warning programs for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

South Korea's first geostationary ocean-weather satellite has successfully reached Earth's orbit after being launched from Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, the government said Sunday. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said the Chollian communication, ocean and meteorological satellite (COMS) blasted off from French Guiana on an Ariane 5-ECA rocket at 6:41 a.m. (Korea Time) after encountering minor technical problems on Thursday and Friday that delayed the launch. The Chollian successfully reached "geostationary transfer orbit" and separated from the second stage rocket roughly 32 minutes after takeoff, the ministry in charge of the country's space program said. It...

A converted Russian intercontinental ballistic missile took Germany's TanDEM-X satellite into orbit on Monday, a military spokesman said. The RS-20B carrier rocket lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 6:14 Moscow time [2:14 GMT]. This is the 16th launch of an international satellite under the Dnepr program involving Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which converts RS-20 ICBMs (classified by NATO as the SS-18 Satan) into carrier rockets to put satellites into low Earth orbit. Around 50 satellites have been put into orbit so far. "The RS-20B rocket took the TanDEM-X satellite into orbit," Col. Vadim Koval said....