U.S. Withholding Satellite Data

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."

Comments

Re:i'm doing my taxes today

[torpor]

The government does what they feel is in the best interest of their people.

...except it doesn't. In fact these days I'm not even sure it should.

oh, yeah .. the american gov't is definitely acting in the interests of its people .. especially by not telling them the real reasons for things. when they say "protecting national security", they really mean "preventing our nation from collapsing in civil war"...

Woot Fp

[Anonymous Coward]

stud7. [rice.edu] little-known time wholesome and

Fuck Slashdotters

[Anonymous Coward]

I've come here for several years now, because there's some damn smart people who offer some damn smart opinions on interesting affairs. Some even have run counter to my beliefs.

But it's getting harder to find these nuggets, because this goddamned site is drowning in nonsense conspiracy theory. Everything that doesn't quite fit or that the editors have seen fit to twist to meet their agendas is held up as proof that 1) President Bush is a dick, 2) those in power (if even just perceived power) are holding you down, and 3) we'll all be wearing epaulets real soon.

Fuck it. I took a sabbatical of sorts from Slashdot about a year ago when I thought it was getting lean like this. Now its just plain dried up here. It's a tired song you assholes are singing. Bedridden.

Who else?

[JJ]

Who else distributes high quality images for free?

As a US taxpayer, if a server goes down a month before it is supposed to be retired, I say good, save the money by not rebuilding it.

I hope the peace loving French, recipients of Sadaam Hussein's billions of dollars stolen from the Iraqi people can provide the world with such images for free.

Re:Quietly passed

[Ironsides]

I have absolutely no sympathy towards people who say "I don't vote". Apathy is not a valid political point of view.

Idea: Make it mandatory by law that every eligible voter must vote in every election unless they have good reason not to have been able to vote (say, in a coma). Punishable by fine and or imprisonment.

Discuss.