An article on the community of visual satellite spotters, amateur hobbyists who enjoy the challenge of identifying and tracking government satellites and sharing the information on the internet.
A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or early March, government officials said Saturday.
A large American spy satellite has lost power and is expected to crash back to Earth sometime late next month. A spokesman with the U.S. National Security Council refused to speculate on the possibility that the satellite may be shot down by a missile to prevent any debris causing damage.
A French space-surveillance radar has detected 20-30 satellites in low Earth orbit that do not figure in the U.S. Defense Department's published catalogue, a discovery that French officials say they will use to pressure U.S. authorities to stop publishing the whereabouts of French reconnaissance and military communications satellites.
Almost three weeks after the successful test of a Chinese anti-satellite weapon, the US military has catalogued more than 500 pieces of debris created by the destruction of the obsolete weather satellite Watchdog groups are keeping a keen eye on the space junk, and are using data from the military to learn more about the weapon's capabilities.
The U.S. Air Force is beefing up the service's ability to accurately track and monitor the position of other satellites in space and developing systems that can destroy those viewed as a threat.
An overview of the U.S. Air Force's space situational awareness efforts which strive to "enhance its knowledge of what's in orbit, as well as its ability to know if American space systems are under attack."
The author explores ways to secure valuable space resources against 'assymetric attack' and suggests that a space surveillance system, similar to the proposed system for observing and tracking Earth-crossing objects, is the best solution.
By coordinating their efforts, amateur satellite spotters in Europe, North America, and South Africa can track everything government spymasters blast into orbit with the exception of the supersecret stealth satellite, codenamed Misty.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a new online database that tracks the nearly 800 active satellites in Earth's orbit. The database shows that the United States has 413 satellites in space snooping for the government, checking on the weather and relaying the latest pop music, more than the 382 the rest of the world has spinning above the Earth.