-Caveat Lector-
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--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector- from http://www.space.com/php/popup/promo/newsite/noad_newsite_020709.html
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
09 October 2001
[... ]
A host of other satellites, providing intelligence imagery and weather data, are put into what's called Low Earth Orbit, typically between 100 and 300 miles up but as low as 80 miles and as high as 1,200 miles.
Space shuttles and the International Space Station operate in Low Earth Orbit.
Several military spy satellites work in the 600-1,200 mile range. They're acronyms reflect the type of data they collect: electronic intelligence (ELINT); signal intelligence (SIGINT); and radar intelligence (RADINT).
Spy satellites orbit at some 25 times the speed of sound, typically passing over a given location twice a day. This routine is useful for spotting the movements of entire encampments, single vehicles and groups of people.
Spy satellites are said by experts to see features as small as 4 or 5 inches across. They can identify people, but not faces. They can spot a license plate on a car, but they can't read it.
Or can they?
Though highly classified, one type of spy satellite known as "Keyhole-class" is thought to see objects as small as a newspaper headline. Experts say three of these satellites, made by Lockheed Martin and costing a billion dollars or more, range over Earth's polar region. They resemble giant digital cameras, somewhat like the Hubble Space Telescope.
Military analysts say Keyhole satellites use an elliptical orbit to take them as close as 200 miles and as far as 600 miles from the planet's surface. This odd orbit allows the satellites, as a group, to photograph nearly the entire planet several times a day, experts say.
Close-up views
To get a closer look, such as in the search for Osama bin Laden, the military employs aircraft. U2 spy planes soar to 70,000 feet and unpiloted drones slip quietly overhead at lower altitudes. The low cost of the drones makes them nearly disposable.
These are the tools most experts say are required to tell the difference between a group of refugees and a group of terrorists.
Not all "spy" imaging is done by the military.
The private company Space Imaging uses its Ikonos satellite to snap pictures from 423 miles above Earth, revealing features as small as 3.3 feet across. The company provided images of lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
And NASA, of course, routinely photographs Earth in the name of science.
No one knows exactly how many satellites the U.S. Military has in orbit.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, which advises the American intelligence community on post-Cold War security issues, estimates the total number of orbiting spacecraft that support military activity directly or indirectly approaches 100.
Included, Pike figures, are roughly two dozen devoted to intelligence, two dozen that provide navigation, and another two dozen that handle communications.
And how effective are they when fighting elusive small groups in rugged mountain terrain?
"What we can do is fairly quickly and fairly precisely locate vehicles and structures in Afghanistan," Pike said. "What we cannot do is track individual people."
He added, however, that along with other intelligence information, satellites enable special operations units to locate terrorists, plan forays into enemy territory, and then go in knowing what weapons have been disabled.
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