Former Spy Satellites Transferred to NASA

Diagram of the KH-11 Kennan telescope 

(Credits: Global Security.Org)

The National Reconnaissance Office has transferred two photo reconnaissance satellites to NASA.

The satellites, which could be KH-11 KENNON satellites, are similar in design to the Hubble Space telescope, but are designed to photograph features on the surface of the Earth rather than outer space.

The two satellites could be considered as replacements for the Hubble Space Telescope, which was serviced five times in orbit.

There are no further plans to service the Hubble, which means as the telescope ages it will eventually fail.

The two reconnaissance satellites transferred to NASA could provide a viable replacement for the Hubble once they have undergone modifications.  However, it is likely that the final use of the two gifts from the NRO will not be finalized for some time.

Although composed of flight ready parts, neither of the two telescopes have been launched before. Launch arrangements would be left up to NASA, something that isn’t projected to occur before 2020.

The United States has two launch options from United Launch Alliance, including the Atlas V and the Delta IV Heavy; however, with the recent success of the SpaceX COTS demonstration and the plans for a heavy-lift derivative of the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX could be a contender for launching the two refurbished space telescopes.

More importantly than launch, however, is instrumentation. Neither of the telescopes currently have the proper instrumentation to perform outer space observations, thus requiring modifications before they could be utilized by NASA.

The KH-11 program, like other reconnaissance satellites, is highly classified and its full capabilities will probably never be revealed regardless of the transfer of the hardware to NASA.

The transfer of hardware from sensitive intelligence/military programs from one agency to another is not unheard of.

Two U.S. Air Force SR-71s were transferred to NASA after the fleet was retired from active service.  The SR-71 itself is a descendant of a highly classified program called OXCART, which was run by the Central Intelligence Agency out of Groom Lake, Nevada.

Iran to launch NAVID research /spy satellite

Iran is going to launch domestically- built Navid satellite by Safir satellite launcher by the end of March 2012, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday.

Navid (promise) is a research satellite and is currently undergoing pre-launch tests, said the report without further details.

In June, Iran put the Rasad (surveillance) satellite in the orbit to render images to the country.

Iran put a satellite into orbit in 2009 and sent some small animals into space in 2010. It plans to send man into space by 2020.

Gulf Oil Spill: Marine pollution Surveillance Report

In the satellite image from April 27 at 12:05 p.m. CDT the MODIS image showed that the oil slick was continuing to emanate from the spill location. Individual slicks lay just north of 29 degrees and zero minutes north, where they have been noted in the days before.

Oil had spread further east and the edge of the slick passed 87 degrees and 30 minutes west compared to the MODIS image taken on April 26. The April 26 satellite image came from NASA's Aqua satellite.

On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a natural-color image of the oil slick just off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick appeared as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta.

Deepwater Horizon had more than120 crew aboard and contained an estimated to 17,000 barrels of oil (700,000 gallons) of number two fuel oil or marine diesel fuel.

Today, April 30, NOAA declared the Deepwater Horizon incident "a Spill of National Significance (SONS)." A SONS is defined as, "a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge" and allows greater federal involvement.

NOAA's estimated release rate of oil spilling into the Gulf is estimated at 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.

NOAA reported on April 29 that dispersants are still being aggressively applied to the oil spill and over 100,000 gallons have been applied. NOAA's test burn late yesterday was successful and approximately 100 barrels of oil were burned in about 45 minutes. NOAA is flying planes over the area and using NASA satellite imagery from the Terra and Aqua satellites to monitor the spill.

Taiwan on the Nuclear Watch List

Taiwan has placed a local company on a watch list after the firm sold specialised equipment to Iran, an official said on Wednesday.

"The company is on an observation list, which means it must obtain prior export permits, after it imported 108 pressure sensors from Europe and sold them to Iran in March 2008," said an official at the Bureau of Foreign Trade.

Pressure sensors can measure altitudes and are therefore used in aircraft and rockets.

The official, who declined to identify the company, stressed that the device is neither high-tech nor restricted, rejecting media reports that it could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported last month that Iran had tried unsuccessfully to buy the device for more than a year from European and American firms before turning to a Taiwanese company.

UN officials are investigating whether the European companies conducted proper checks of end-user certificates for the equipment, the paper said.

The international community has warned Iran to stop construction of its second uranium enrichment plant, wary that it is trying to develop a nuclear bomb.

Iran rejects the charges and says it wants to build up a civil energy programme.

Mini Helicopter - Robotic Surveillance Device - Obstacle avoidance system

The helicopter in this video may weigh only 30 grams, but it carries a compass and motion sensors, can change course and warn fellow craft of obstacles it bumps into, and could even carry a small camera. It can also resist what might be called a King Kong attack – if swatted out of the air the tiny craft soon recovers and takes off again.

It was developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley in Moffett Field, California. It would make a great toy, but the team's intentions are deadly serious. They aim to fly squadrons of "Sensorfly" craft that coordinate with each other to explore indoor environments – for instance, to check out buildings after a natural disaster.

The robots are built by adding custom processors, sensors and software to rotors and motors from an off-the-shelf toy helicopter. Each prototype costs only about $200 to build, says Pei Zhang, an electrical engineer working on the project with graduate student Aveek Purohit.