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Just consider: If a private, for-profit company that sells public imagery is publishing this openly, what capabilities does the NRO have that synthesize data fr
by walrus01 2y ago
Just consider: If a private, for-profit company that sells public imagery is publishing this openly, what capabilities does the NRO have that synthesize data from SAR radar-specialized satellites, visual spectrum camera satellites, infrared-band specialized sensing satellites, and possibly NSA SIGINT satellites that capture emissions from aircraft traffic?
- preisschild 2y ago> NSA SIGINT satellites The antennas of satellites like USA-223 alone are so big that they could probably pick up wireless game controllers lmao https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-223 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-223
- walrus01 2y agoIf we take the maximum size of geostationary publicly known commercial telecom satellite that's ever been launched as a reference, and what vehicle they launched on, it's probably in the range of 6000-8000kg total mass, including its expected lifespan of stationkeeping propellant.
- Cthulhu_ 2y agoMuch more, but they don't want you (or "the enemy") to know how much they know. Of course, Trump "accidentally" revealed the US's sattelite imagery capability (https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137474748/trump-tweeted-an-image-from-a-spy-satellite-declassified-document-shows https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137474748/trump-tweeted-an-i...). I think once the Ukraine war is over, maybe in years to come, the impact of US intelligence will become fully clear. I'm fairly sure it was due to US intelligence on the location of Russian ships like the Moskva that they were taken out, and that doesn't even need particularly high resolution cameras.
- herewulf 2y agoAnd that's a six year old image. Imagine the state of the art in 2025.