The nation’s top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government’s intelligence assets — including spy satellites and other classified sensors — to assess the hidden complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical forests.

The Obama administration plans to kill a controversial Bush administration spy satellite program that would have provided federal, state and local officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery — but no eavesdropping capabilities— to assist with emergency response and other domestic-security needs, such as identifying where ports or border areas are vulnerable to terrorism.

The U.S. is exploring the use of commercial satellites to enhance ship identification and communication for the battle against piracy.

U.S. intelligence agencies are capitalizing on North Korea's weekend rocket launch to advance proposals to deploy two new spy satellite systems estimated to cost a total of about $10 billion, according to government and industry officials.

The United States must develop a longer-term strategic plan for the satellites it operates to safeguard national security and the U.S. space industrial base, according to the head of the U.S. spy-satellite agency.

While the unprecedented smashup between a U.S. and Russian satellite earlier this month sparked a lot of attention, another wayward spacecraft — out-of-whack U.S. secret satellite DSP-23 — remains a serious concern.

The Homeland Security Department is relying more often and more broadly on geospatial information technology, including spy satellites, to collect and analyze intelligence for its counterterrorism and emergency response missions, raising domestic privacy concerns.

The sharpest commercial imaging satellite ever launched is now orbiting the Earth, sweeping over the North Pole and under the South Pole every 98 minutes, collecting high-resolution images of the scene below. From 423 miles up, the GeoEye-1 satellite can spot objects as small as 16 inches across.

America has become so lousy at building spy satellites that "the United
States is losing its preeminence in space," a Congressional
intelligence report declares. What's worse, this decline comes as
"emerging space powers such as Russia, India and China" are getting
better and better at snooping from above.

The Department of Homeland Security will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn't yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws.