5 ms·

That might not be totally true. The US govt likes to sneak secret things into comm satellites. For example gps satellites also contain hardware to detect nuclea

That might not be totally true. The US govt likes to sneak secret things into comm satellites. For example gps satellites also contain hardware to detect nuclear detonations and track missile launches. Just speculation, but there could easily be earth viewing spy telescopes, wide band radio capture, or space weapons tacked on these

jessriedel 10y ago
This was a private launch of commercial satellites (Iridium) whereas GPS is run by the military. In the past, missions with classified satellites do not feature any publicly available footage or telemetry at all. I guess that's impossible to rule out that this is a sophisticated plan to hide even the existence of the classified microsats, while providing detailed footage and telemetry up until the moment they are deployed, but it's far-fetched.
- ChuckMcM 10y ago
  When Iridium went out of business the Pentagon stepped in to run it[1], just sayin' :-) [1] http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255
  - azernik 10y ago
    Except that they didn't. They just offered a nice fat contract to keep it afloat. TFA: "Staving off a fiery end to the 66-satellite necklace and its spares, the Pentagon on Wednesday awarded a projected two-year, $72 million communications contract to seal a new ownership deal worked out in a New York bankruptcy court." That's like claiming that NASA is "running" SpaceX, since its contracts are extremely important to SpaceX's business model.
    - ChuckMcM 10y ago
      Fair enough, that said, if your biggest customer and source of 99% of your revenue said, "Hey, we want you to put a special something on your satellite the next time you fly one..." do you think they would say "No way!" ? :-) Not saying they did or they didn't but if they asked I'm sure Iridium would have accommodated any request from the customer. Edit: Iridium would have accommodated their customer.
      - ChuckMcM 10y ago
        If anyone would care to share I would be interested in understanding the negative interpretation of this comment.
        taneq 10y ago
        The way I interpret the comment is that the Pentagon bankrolled Iridium with a $72mil contract, and that therefore Iridium is likely to respond favourably to Pentagon requests to quietly add a little something extra to their satellites. I'm not sure if that interpretation is negative or not, I guess it depends on whether you approve of the Pentagon and its intelligence gathering activities.
      - nickpsecurity 10y ago
        I agree with you. Many defense contractors already do this. We've seen it most in telecoms post-Snowden. There are secure phones based on Iridium's tech. There's no reason to think they aren't getting some kind of side benefits out of the leverage they have. They usually try & often get it.
        nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
        Unfortunately most of HN doesn't :) , the downvotes brigade is strong on this one. I'm not normally a purveyor of conspiracy theories but to me this seems like the most obvious reason why the rest of the launch would be not only filmed but Livestreamed, with no footage of the sat deployments
        nickpsecurity 10y ago
        Im not pushing a specific hypothesis so much as saying there's a recurring pattern of subversions and fringe benefits to deals like this. Usually for a lot less money, too.
        simonh 10y ago
        Conspiracy theory style speculation doesn't do well on HN. I can buy the conjecture that comma satellites might be tapped for intel. It's pointless and groundless speculation along the lines of mud slinging so expect downvotes, but at least it's not completely implausible. But the idea that space weapons might be sneaked onto non-classified satellites not covered by military level security standards makes no sense. Why would the military expose themselves to security risks like that? It's pure BS.
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/5ou7mt/is_iridium_launch_object_m_a_test_satellite/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/5ou7mt/is_iridium_l...
    - ChuckMcM 10y ago
      Curiouser and Curiouser.
lazaroclapp 10y ago
Well, I would expect those mostly in military / govt satellites (even those with more benign overt goals such as the GPS constellation). Sounds a bit less likely that they would sneak military hardware (specially weapons) on comercial satellites owned by a private corporation (i.e. Iridium Communications) and likely not designed to function in an adversarial environment. I mean, it is a VA based company, so it is possible, but would not be my first bet. Lacking ground tracking when the satellites are deployed almost a half-orbit away from the launch site seems perfectly plausible to me.
walrus01 10y ago
> The US govt likes to sneak secret things into comm satellites. For example gps satellites also contain hardware to detect nuclear detonations and track missile launches. Umm what? GPS satellites are not commercial satellites, they're owned and run by the USAF... every aspect of their design is protected by TS and TS/SCI clearance. The master GPS satellite control station is a USAF base in Colorado. They can put as many extra DoD supporting features on them as they want without "sneaking" anything.

jessriedel 10y ago

This was a private launch of commercial satellites (Iridium) whereas GPS is run by the military. In the past, missions with classified satellites do not feature any publicly available footage or telemetry at all. I guess that's impossible to rule out that this is a sophisticated plan to hide even the existence of the classified microsats, while providing detailed footage and telemetry up until the moment they are deployed, but it's far-fetched.

ChuckMcM 10y ago
When Iridium went out of business the Pentagon stepped in to run it[1], just sayin' :-) [1] http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255
- azernik 10y ago
  Except that they didn't. They just offered a nice fat contract to keep it afloat. TFA: "Staving off a fiery end to the 66-satellite necklace and its spares, the Pentagon on Wednesday awarded a projected two-year, $72 million communications contract to seal a new ownership deal worked out in a New York bankruptcy court." That's like claiming that NASA is "running" SpaceX, since its contracts are extremely important to SpaceX's business model.
  - ChuckMcM 10y ago
    Fair enough, that said, if your biggest customer and source of 99% of your revenue said, "Hey, we want you to put a special something on your satellite the next time you fly one..." do you think they would say "No way!" ? :-) Not saying they did or they didn't but if they asked I'm sure Iridium would have accommodated any request from the customer. Edit: Iridium would have accommodated their customer.
    - ChuckMcM 10y ago
      If anyone would care to share I would be interested in understanding the negative interpretation of this comment.
      - taneq 10y ago
        The way I interpret the comment is that the Pentagon bankrolled Iridium with a $72mil contract, and that therefore Iridium is likely to respond favourably to Pentagon requests to quietly add a little something extra to their satellites. I'm not sure if that interpretation is negative or not, I guess it depends on whether you approve of the Pentagon and its intelligence gathering activities.
    - nickpsecurity 10y ago
      I agree with you. Many defense contractors already do this. We've seen it most in telecoms post-Snowden. There are secure phones based on Iridium's tech. There's no reason to think they aren't getting some kind of side benefits out of the leverage they have. They usually try & often get it.
      - nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
        Unfortunately most of HN doesn't :) , the downvotes brigade is strong on this one. I'm not normally a purveyor of conspiracy theories but to me this seems like the most obvious reason why the rest of the launch would be not only filmed but Livestreamed, with no footage of the sat deployments
        nickpsecurity 10y ago
        Im not pushing a specific hypothesis so much as saying there's a recurring pattern of subversions and fringe benefits to deals like this. Usually for a lot less money, too.
        simonh 10y ago
        Conspiracy theory style speculation doesn't do well on HN. I can buy the conjecture that comma satellites might be tapped for intel. It's pointless and groundless speculation along the lines of mud slinging so expect downvotes, but at least it's not completely implausible. But the idea that space weapons might be sneaked onto non-classified satellites not covered by military level security standards makes no sense. Why would the military expose themselves to security risks like that? It's pure BS.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/5ou7mt/is_iridium_launch_object_m_a_test_satellite/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/5ou7mt/is_iridium_l...
  - ChuckMcM 10y ago
    Curiouser and Curiouser.

lazaroclapp 10y ago

Well, I would expect those mostly in military / govt satellites (even those with more benign overt goals such as the GPS constellation). Sounds a bit less likely that they would sneak military hardware (specially weapons) on comercial satellites owned by a private corporation (i.e. Iridium Communications) and likely not designed to function in an adversarial environment. I mean, it is a VA based company, so it is possible, but would not be my first bet. Lacking ground tracking when the satellites are deployed almost a half-orbit away from the launch site seems perfectly plausible to me.

walrus01 10y ago

> The US govt likes to sneak secret things into comm satellites. For example gps satellites also contain hardware to detect nuclear detonations and track missile launches. Umm what? GPS satellites are not commercial satellites, they're owned and run by the USAF... every aspect of their design is protected by TS and TS/SCI clearance. The master GPS satellite control station is a USAF base in Colorado. They can put as many extra DoD supporting features on them as they want without "sneaking" anything.