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U.S. Withholding Satellite Data

Posted by timothy on from the derives-from-a-mandate-from-the-masses dept.

plover writes "Because of Congressional legislation passed quietly in 2003, the Air Force Space Command will no longer distribute space surveillance data via NASA. There was supposed a three year transitional period where the data was to be made available via a NASA web site, but earlier this month their transitional server went down hard, and NASA has decided to not rebuild it. (It was scheduled to be shut down on 31 March 2005 anyway.) The only way to obtain satellite data now is by signing up with the official Space-Track website. Part of the agreement to obtaining data from their site is that you agree to not redistribute their data. Of course, amateurs are still free to redistribute their observations, including those of classified satellites."

2 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Open ended by WillieT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I was reading through the "terms of use" and got to this line "... By continuing, you consent to your keystrokes and data content being monitored." The way it's stated is so ambiguous that it's scarry. Anyone else agree?

  2. Re:Spies. by fremsley471 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Hubble is no good for looking at the Earth because it's too bright. It would flood and destroy the detectors!

    No. Hubble regularly looks at Earth for calibration purposes. See: http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/meetings/shst2/williams r.html