Spy chief Mike McConnell has junked the multibillion-dollar stealth spy satellite program that engineers hoped would someday pass undetected through the space above other nations.
The author considers whether recent patents reveal the techniques behind the top secret U.S. stealth satellite program.
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 U.S. is reviewing its future spy satellite programs, including the controversial stealth satellite project.
In the debate over the top-secret stealth spy satellite program, opponents are calling into question the utility of spy satellites by pointing to the growing capabilities of UAVs as surveillance platforms.
The National Security Archives has posted a passage from Jeffrey Richelson's 2002 book, "The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Secret Directorate of Science and Technology", that briefly discusses the history of the stealth spy satellite program (MISTY).
John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org discusses the recent congressional debate over the stealth spy satellite program and offers technical reasons why the program may be unnecessary.
The United States is building a new generation of spy satellites designed to orbit undetected, in a highly classified program that has provoked opposition in closed congressional sessions where lawmakers have questioned its necessity and rapidly escalating price, according to U.S. officials.
For more than a decade, the United States has had at least one and possibly more stealth spy satellites capable of peering down at targets without fear of detection but they were eventually discovered by a small cadre of civilian space trackers.
A new generation of small intelligence satellites, planned to be launched beginning in 2003, is expected to give U.S. analysts almost constant overhead images of specific trouble spots anywhere in the world, according to administration and congressional sources. Some of the new vehicles may be equipped with stealth technology so they cannot be tracked by radar, several sources said.