The snooping satellite ‘s are as big as a bus and can look down on the earth from on high…
Their imagery is Eldon seen by by the public…
(Several enthusiast actually keep track of the top-secret spy satellites)
But Donald Trump outed a picture a little while ago…
while we’ve known about these high-flying cameras for decades, and indeed seen them crop up with usually exaggerated capabilities in spy films, their true powers have been closely guarded secrets. At least, that is, until President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to tweet out an image of an exploded rocket launch facility in Iran taken by a U.S. spy satellite, an image that showed just how good U.S. hardware is at securing crisp, high-resolution images.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrumpThe United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One.
Spaceborne Spycraft
Trump’s purpose was ostensibly to deflect blame for the blown-up launch pad away from the U.S. But in showing the image—technically a photo of a photo, apparently captured by the president’s own smartphone during a security briefing, as evidenced by a spooky shadow and a flash reflection in the center of the frame—he set off a furious weekend of investigations by amateur satellite sleuths who were able to convincingly prove, by cross-checking known satellite trajectories against shadows and angles in the image, that the shot came from USA 224, one of a series of spaceborne assets known as KH-11 reconnaissance satellites.
As with the secretive X-37B spaceplane program—and most other military programs for that matter—very little is known about the KH-11 series of reconnaissance satellites.
There have been 17 launches of the satellites since the first in 1976. Lockheed Martin builds them, steadily improving their capabilities with each group—or “block”—of satellites, including their sensor systems and their data-download capabilities. The satellites are operated by the National Reconnaissance Office, with the data processed and analyzed by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, which typically provides reconnaissance data to U.S. defense and intelligence organizations, including the CIA, FBI, NSA, DOD, and others. The satellites were first codenamed Kennan, but eventually renamed to Evolved Enhanced CRYSTAL System….
Children who aren’t mature enough to understand and to control themselves should never be given the combination to the medicine cabinet. Nor should they be allowed near an open gas range without mature adult supervision.