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Close encounters of the classified kind
- LMYahooTFY 9y agoVery interesting. If I recall the details correctly, there have been observations recently of another NRO satellite in a geostationary orbit above the middle east and west Asia, that apparently can maneuver and reposition itself. And if I'm still not mistaken (may have been a different satellite) it was confirmed that this satellite had extraordinarily high communications bandwidth and was speculated to be used either for SIGINT or for operating UAVs. Anyone interested in it, other classified satellites and classified things on the map in general should look up Trevor Paglen. He's a Geographer who's recently begun taking pretty spectacular shots of classified satellites.
- quakeguy 9y agoConcerning Trevor Paglen ( http://www.paglen.com http://www.paglen.com ), he also gave a great speach at CCC30, "Seeing the secret state six landscapes" https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5604_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312282300_-_seeing_the_secret_state_six_landscapes_-_trevor_paglen https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5604_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312282... I recommend it! Especially for a saturday chill out noon ;)
- Hasknewbie 9y agoThank you (and GP) for the Paglen reference, I remember watching this talk but could not find it again afterward. Now bookmarked. I especially like how the CCC crowd slowly realizes why a photographer/artist would be talking at this conf at all. There's definitely a "ho shit, that guy ain't playing" moment there.
- quakeguy 9y agoI was there, and that was exactly how most of the audience did react after 15 min. into his talk.
- marcuslager 9y agoMany people need to watch this. It reformatted much of my belief system in a disruptive way. That guy is something else.
- heartbreak 9y agoThe guy thinks a CIA front company got sued and then provided documents during discovery that revealed covert operations.
- Hasknewbie 9y agoThat is incorrect. He first mentions CIA fronts, but then goes on to discuss real companies that occasionally do business with the CIA 'on the side'. Two of these (Sportsflight and Richmor) sued each others on activities that happened to be tied to the CIA. He did not make that claim out of thin air, but produced documents that were publicly available. The New Yorker provided more details on this topic in a piece they did on Paglen: "More than fifteen hundred documents were made public in the case: invoices, e-mails, cell-phone logs, receipts. These contained financial data—a typical rendition itinerary seems to have cost the government about three hundred thousand dollars—and structural details of the rendition program." Source: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/22/prying-eyes http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/22/prying-eyes The article also notes that he is recognized by other journalists for his work on renditions.
- pjc50 9y agoCan you summarise this for those of us who haven't watched the video?
- marcuslager 9y agoSummarize how it changed my belief system (or gave it a dent)? Or summarize the video? Ok, here's a summary: the video is just one of the most watchable things I've come across.
- dkersten 9y ago> it was confirmed that this satellite had extraordinarily high communications bandwidth and was speculated to be used either for SIGINT or for operating UAVs. Given that the recently launched civillian satellite Viasat-2 has a bandwidth of 300Gb/s and a reported expected latency of about 25ms, its not hard to imagine that a classified satellite like this may have crazy high bandwidth and low latency, perfect for reconnaissance, SIGNINT or operating UAVs.
- lallysingh 9y agoPassive sigint doesn't care about latency. Any sigint capabilities here involve man in the middle. Edit: unless you're doing sigint in something very fast, like a missile launch.
- dkersten 9y agoI was thinking for something like real-time UAV control, but yeah I guess you’re right that for most use cases latency may not be important.
- AndrewKemendo 9y agoPassive sigint doesn't care about latency "Active SIGINT" really only applies to CNE and not the traditional COMINT where MITM is used for translation and interpretation. In which case latency does matter, but not on the order of ms. unless you're doing sigint in something very fast, like a missile launch. That's FISINT/ELINT/MASINT though and has a completely different PED chain. Almost 100% automated.
- sephamorr 9y agoNot sure where you got the 25ms number from. Viasat-2 is in geostationary orbit at 35000km. The roundtrip speed of light delay alone is 240ms.
- dkersten 9y agoI’ll try to find the source. I guess it must have been mistaken given what you said. EDIT: Haven’t found the source. I did find that the existing ViaSat-1 latency (on Exede, and actual ping times not satellite->ground latency) is 600 to 700ms, so that’s roughly in line with what you said. Exede do a bunch of latency compensation where they can so people often report lower latency, but for eg online games that obviously won’t work. I also know that what I read before was specific to airplane in-flight internet, although I doubt commercial flight altitude make any difference to latency, so that’s likely an irrelevant point.
- dasmoth 9y agoSounds like you could be talking about PAN. Here's an article by the same author: http://thespacereview.com/article/3095/1 http://thespacereview.com/article/3095/1
- LMYahooTFY 9y agoYes! That was it, thank you!
- slr555 9y agoAllow me to don a shiny new cap of quality Reynolds aluminum foil and say this. If it was meant to be observed, and if it was intentional, and if it was nearly "danger close", couldn't this suggest that USA 276 is a platform in development not just to deploy sensors for observation but perhaps to, in the future host systems for engaging and destroying satellites.
- krapp 9y agoWouldn't its unusual orbit make it less than optimal for intercepting other satellites?
- seiferteric 9y agoIf it was just demonstrating the capability, I would think they could always launch more into more appropriate orbits. I almost think they chose the ISS just to make sure all relevant parties were watching, since it is probably always being closely monitored.
- idlewords 9y agoReynolds has been a CIA front for decades. Wake up!
- krapp 9y agoTypical FUD from an obvious shill account for Saran Wrap.
- friedgraymatter 9y agoHope it is not too late but the aluminum foil meme was a Department Psi op. Interestingly enough it was Russian (well Soviet) researchers that showed that aluminum in fact enhances susceptibility in the remote subjects.
- Neliquat 9y ago
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- rdtsc 9y agoA test and demo of capabilities such that Russians and Chinese notice is the most plausible explanation I'd guess. Not sure if they cared if amateurs noticed or not.
- nabla9 9y agoIt's impossible to hide anything in leo from Russians or Chinese. They have their own radar and telescope surveillance networks. They always notice.
- kryptiskt 9y agoStealth satellites aren't impossible given that all the tech has already been developed for Earthbound use, and unlike aircraft you only have to make the Earth-facing side stealthy.
- elfchief 9y agoAnyone know what software they use to do the Vimeo video in that article? I've been wondering for a while, when I've seen videos like that...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- slandersson 9y agoOften either STK (expensive, but there is a free version) or CNES VTS (free) Source: I use them both at work. Links: https://www.agi.com/products/engineering-tools https://www.agi.com/products/engineering-tools https://logiciels.cnes.fr/content/vts https://logiciels.cnes.fr/content/vts
- dooglius 9y agoHuh, I thought that orbit details of all satellites was tracked. If not, collisions probably become much more of an issue.