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For anyone interested in the Cold War stuff, especially satellite image recovery. I recommend watching the movie (fictional) Ice Station Zebra [1] Also, when i

For anyone interested in the Cold War stuff, especially satellite image recovery. I recommend watching the movie (fictional) Ice Station Zebra [1] Also, when it comes to satellites nothing blew my mind as much as learning the Hubble Space Telescope was initially created as a spy satellite [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennan

InclinedPlane 11y ago
The Hubble was not initially created as a spy satellite, but the two systems have some fundamental similarities due to basic constraints of the role and launch systems. Any such craft would have a large mirror, a light shield, an instrument bay behind the mirror, and solar panels. Exactly how close the KH-11 and HST designs are otherwise is entirely speculative since the KH-11 design is still classified.
- mikecb 11y ago
  Somewhat similar, but with a much different field of view, given that they have to focus on things much closer than hubble. A pair was recently donated to NASA,[1] and reported as KH-11s.[2] I guess they've moved on since the first 11 was launched in the '70s. [1] http://www.space.com/16000-spy-satellites-space-telescopes-nasa.html http://www.space.com/16000-spy-satellites-space-telescopes-n... [2] http://www.americaspace.com/?p=20825 http://www.americaspace.com/?p=20825