Tracking Satellites That Aren't There

stacybro writes "Wired is running an interesting article about amateur astronomers tracking "black" satellites." From the article: "The observers, who congregate on a Web site called Heavens-Above and a mailing list called SeeSat-L, have amassed an impressive collection of information and expertise. For two decades, they have played a high tech game of hide-and-seek with the US's National Reconnaissance Office, a secretive satellite agency. By coordinating their efforts, amateur observers in Europe, North America, and South Africa monitor satellites at different phases of their journeys and extrapolate the precise dimensions of their orbits." This is in addition to the ones we know about and even the ones we think we know about.

Comments

Re:Locations of All US Spy Satellites and Names

[plover]

Umm, these are only secret U.S. satellites. Molczan is Canadian. Heavens-above is a German site. The observers are scattered around the world.

And in case you've only been listening to George Bush's version of world events, here's a news flash: the rest of the world doesn't give a rat's ass about spilling U.S. secrets. Most of them find it hilarious that a couple of guys with GPS receivers and binoculars can crack some of the secrets of the most expensive devices ever launched by the most powerful government on earth.