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Expensive U.S. Spy Satellite Not Working
Penguinshit writes to mention a Reuters article about some trouble the U.S. is having communicating with a spy satellite. The sensor package was launched last year by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It has apparently hung in a low orbit for months now, and efforts to communicate with it have been unsuccessful. From the article: "The official said the problems were substantial and involved multiple systems, adding that U.S. officials were working to reestablish contact with the satellite because of the importance of the new technology it was meant to test and demonstrate. The other source said the satellite had been described to him as 'a comprehensive failure.' There was no suggestion by either of the sources that the satellite had been purposely damaged as part of a terrorist attack. Another government official said he had no information about any attacks on U.S. satellites."
"Windows has encountered an error from which it cannot recover and needs to restart. Please press any key to continue..."
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
So that's what my DIY laser cannon shot down... I was worried that I built it wrong.
Bet ya this is a case of converting form Imperial to Metric again. Guess the military never got NASA's memo :P
If another country launched a spy satellite and the US destroyed it, it wouldn't be terrorism, it would be self-defense. Why would it be any different the other way around?
"Nothing to see here... at least not with your security clearance."
why mention it? Why raise the 'boogeyman' of terrorism for something unrelated to it, other then to reinforce the culture of fear created.
Come on now - a terrorist attack? I really think that any reporter or journalist that's gotten to the point of asking if terrorists are involved every time something goes wrong should be fired, or at least whacked with a Clue Stick and put on probation or something.
"Huh. This turkey sandwich I got from the commissary is a little dry today..."
"Really? Do you think it could be some kind of terrorist attack on Lunchtime?!"
Absurd.
If anyone actually did something to kill the satellite, there is a list of countries that I would suspect long before looking at terrorists. Countries like China, Russia, etc., have greater reason, not to mention resources, to damage an orbiting satellite.
Why is always terrorists that are the culprits when something goes wrong? The nations that used espionage before the "War On Terror" are still there, and still have vested interest in denying the US the ability to spy on them.
does anybody else feel that the mention of terrorists in this article is just absofuckinglutely retarded? that anyone, for even an instant, seriously entertained the notion that any terrorist group has both the capacity and wherewithal to take out something in LEO, UNDETECTED, is beyond idiotic.
we must be living in the bizarro universe.
my pet machine
Looks like they'll have to send someone up to press Ctrl-Alt-Del.
To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
Anyone remember the pioneering days when real men (and women) weren't afraid to light a giant roman candle under their posteriors? Back in those days, we would have retasked a spaceflight, go and check the sat out, and get it running again. What I woudln't give for that space capability again. ;)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Some spooks were using the bird to zoom into those nude beaches and the camera got stuck, (or that is what they are telling their bosses) and so they pretend there is a communication problem.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Well, now is the time to send up some more Space Cowboys to repair it. Clint Eastwood shouldn't be to busy right now...
This is my signature. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Nah, I'd just infiltrate someone into the programming team and make sure that the satellite's antennas stay turned away from the Earth and the solar panels' angle isn't optimal. There are many ways to sabotage such a complex system...
-b.
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks^H^H^H^H^H^Hterrorists with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
This is what happens when you outsource your communications to EDS and NMCI "What do you mean by 'I forgot to turn it on...'!?!"
Maybe someone should check Professor Hathaway's house. Those crazy college kids might have swapped a chip again... "...everybody wants to rule the world..."
But just think of the mass hysteria that would prevail by causing a spy satellite's radio to break down.
I know I feel safer already. Oh, wait. . .
KFG
Moles have existed in the highest levels of government. What makes you think that something like that is (in theory) impossible. I'm not saying *I* would, BTW - I'm saying that it would be the easiest way for a terrorist organization to sabotage a satellite.
-b.
"There was no suggestion that the system had been infected by the GOOD TIMES virus, which is known to cause computers to get caught in an Nth complexity, infinite loop and overheat. Independent sources were also unable to verify whether the GOOD TIMES virus was involved."
Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the
-b.
How do we know? There was no suggestion that sharks with laserbeams on their head were involved, either.. you never know...
Shouldn't it be disavowed like any self-respectable spy? If you lose James Bond, he never existed, right?
I like basketball!!1!
I read once that the greatest trick the devil ever performed was convincing people he didn't exist. Then I guess the greatest trick the US government ever performed was convincing people they are inept. I can (and do) use many derogative terms to describe the government, but inept certainly isn't one of them.
Ignore anything I said above, I actually agree with everything you believe - mod accordingly.
Or is it just a ploy to get people to not worry about it, thereby making the NRO's job easier by hiding it in plain sight.
They should have known it was a bad idea to appoint the President of the Arabian Horse Association to be the head of the National Reconnaissance Office.
Doesn't this seem kind of convenient, given the purpose?
Terrorist A: What's that spy-satellite looking thing up there that appears to be looking right at us?
Terrorist B: It actually is a spy satellite, but it's broken. We know because they said so. Continue terrorizing with impunity, my friend.
This is business as usual at the NRO. The NRO is the most pathetic of the US intelligence agencies, and is known for failing more often than not in just about all endeavors. For the NRO, a satellite making it into space at all is a big deal, because NRO projects have a history of dying in the design stage, and there have been other big failures such as a specialized launch vehicle blowing up on the launch pad, taking satellites with it.
If you're wondering why you've never heard of the NRO before, it's because the government does everything it can to keep the agency under wraps, mostly because it doesn't want the taxpayers to realize how many billions of dollars are flushed down this worthless toilet of a spy agency yearly.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Building, launching and fly a spacecraft is complex and difficult. But ever since the mid 1990's the industry thinks that cutting costs (which inevitably means cutting late life cycle costs such as operations) can be overcome with automation and hand-waving. The launch vehicle gets the spacecraft off the ground, but then some silly operations error or engineering flaw not uncovered by operations results in a catastrophic failure (e.g. JPL/Mars English vs. Metric debacle). Back in the day - agencies fully funded operations personnel that shook out both procedural and engineering defects ahead of time. Just because an agency doesn't/can't pay for the same level of effort in today's fiscal environment does not mean that these types of defects magically disappear.
It used to be said that of "Better, faster, cheaper," you could only have two out of three. As time goes on, I wonder if these expectations are too high.
Space missions have cost overruns for sure, but in my experience those overruns come from unrealistically low bids from major vendors and the fact that these dinosaur companies build spacecraft in pretty much the same way as they always have. They used to run of of money about a year before launch and they still run out of money a year before launch. IMHO, the only way to reduce the frequency of catatrophic failure is for early life cycle vendors to becore more efficient so there are funds for operations to shake out the bugs before it gets up on orbit.
Our embassies aren't just a front/home base for covert CIA operations.
The missile defense system doesn't really work.
The war in Iraq isn't about Oil.
The government doesn't read your e-mail.
We do have spy satellites but they don't work.
Sure! Gotcha!
Move along nothing to see here.
As an anti-satellite weapon. It would launch a special shell in space that would explode near the target satellite, covering it with sticky material and blinding it.
Who was their defense contractor on that idea? Lone Starr and a certain rotund guy with a tail named Barf?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
What kind of bullshit fear-mongering is this? There was no suggestion that it was caused by Martian attack or canabalism in the British Navy either. Why not mention that?
with that encryption key?
Complexity itself is likely the biggest cause of the problem. No sabotage needed. Although complexity (somewhat) needs to be part of the normal operation, there should be non-complex survival modes that kick in when things start to go wrong, such as:
- A low battery could trigger a spring loaded mechanism that opened one solar panel. Then move the panel around semi-randomly until charging begins. Once there is enough charge, smarter (i.e. more complex) aiming circuitry could be turned on.
- Loss of communications from mother earth for a few weeks could trigger a mechanism which points the antenna directly towards the strongest source of gravity, so that we could get a communication airplane under it.
There are likely these sorts of gizmos already, but one really needs to consider why they fail and how they could be made simpler to eliminate the failure cause.Incidentally, this doesn't just apply to satellites. Lots of things have (or should have self-preservation built in). My camera, for example, retracts and covers its lens when the battery gets low, so that it does not get hurt when I throw it back in my pocket. All it requires is a bit of forethought and contingency planning on the part of the designers.
Well it is big news to business, I am guessing that the company that built it and the company that insured it are a little upset right now.
Why do you think that? They've all been paid; it's the government's (read: your tax dollars) loss, not the manufacturers. The government doesn't generally go to outside insurers for this sort of thing; when an expensive piece of equipment goes on the fritz, they -- by which I mean us -- pretty much just have to eat the cost.
If anything, the contractor is probably deciding on when it would be polite to just drop into conversation that yes, they still have all the plans for the satellite sitting around somewhere, and no, they're certainly not too busy to crank out another one, for an appropriate price.
I'm sure some of the engineers and designers that worked on the bird are probably disappointed that it'll never get to perform its function, whatever that was, but when you build spacecraft of any type for a living, you learn to deal with disappointment. It's one of the few things left in this world that still has some real risk to it. You can easily spend 3-5 years (or more) of your life building a satellite, only to have the launch vehicle go off-course during launch, and have the RSO blow all your hard work to smithereens. It comes with the territory.
Plus, it's not like the people that built it were ever going to know anything about it, if it did work. It would have just disappeared into the very black world of the NRO; I doubt they had much in the way of emotional attachment to it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Keyboard not detected. Press RETURN to continue...
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Reading the comments posted above is chilling. Generally, people don't even begin to understand the issues.
Weapons and spy contracts can be mostly secret. In practice, that means there will be less supervision and much more opportunity to make and sell junk at very high profit. It is very common that an entire project is so poorly designed that it is useless; however, the politics is such that the failures are kept secret. The U.S. government has been corrupted by secrecy and dishonesty.
Here is my summary of U.S. government corruption: George W. Bush comedy and tragedy. I hope you will write your own summary and send it to friends and government leaders.
"American technology, Russion technology -- it's all made in Taiwan anyway."
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Mom: That "jam" thing of yours on the roof is making an awful noise. You take it down, you hear me? You can play with it just as well when it's turned off and inside.
Tinkering son on the roof, growing up to become your average mad scientist: Mom, it's jamming, not "jam", and it's cool. I think it's actually working. Don't worry, I won't hurt myself on it. *Hehe, I can't wait until I can read about this in the papers. They might think a nuclear war is coming... I hope they start one! Muahaha!*
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
A good slap on the side of the cabinet.
.
When you're seeing bogeymen under every rock you're afraid. Paranoid even.
Deleted
Yawn...
"There was no suggestion by either of the sources that the satellite had been purposely damaged as part of a terrorist attack. Another government official said..."
Exactly how many intelligence agencies does the United States have?
Well, I doubt if NRO launches anything-- they probably sign a check to Martin-Marietta, who coordinates things and rents a pad at Vandenberg.
>and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Well, it probably cost hundreds of millions of $. What it's worth, especially in the light of it being unusable, is debatable. Back when CMOS sensor arrays were custom made for $70,000 each the technology was gee-whizzy. Nowdays your basic disposable camera isnt that far behind what's in the current sats.
>It has apparently hung in a low orbit for months now.
"Hung"? as in hanging from something? Or hung as in "windows hung on me"?
>and efforts to communicate with it have been unsuccessful. The official said the problems were substantial and involved multiple systems.
So it probably had several radio links and none of them seem to be working. That's bad. There's usually at least one last-ditch fail-safe really simple telemetry and command link that doesnt depend on the main power source or antenna aiming. If they can't talk to that thingy, things are mighty grim.
>adding that U.S. officials
"Officials"? More likely a bunch of hairy and now sweaty peons.
>Were working to reestablish contact with the satellite because of the importance of the new technology it was meant to test and demonstrate.
So they wouldnt bother if it had old technology but cost $200 million?
>The other source said the satellite had been described to him as 'a comprehensive failure.'
Well, if you can't talk to it, that's pretty comprehensive.
Terrorism isn't that big of a threat. It's a lot more likely that someone you live with will kill you than a terrorist.
Oh come now; We've all seen Star Wars.
We all know how this one ends: "Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!"
heh the very idea that terrorists could possibly do something to a satellite after launch makes me laugh. i mean did it go like this?
Osama - "OK Zawawhatshisname, show me this big plan you have for taking out the satellites of the great satan?"
ZAWA - "ok, basically we strap a bomb to young Uday here..."
Osama - "ok, not bad so far, pretty standard, then what?"
Zawa - "then we have this big slingshot and...."
Osama - "whoa whoa waitasec.... are you serious??"
Zawa - "yeh, well he gets in then we tie the camels to the basket and..."
Osama - "what somebody cracks the whip and pulls a string c'mon man!! Is this what I pay you for?!?!"
Zawa - "well, I..."
Osama - "You're fired..."
Zawa - "but..."
Osama - "dude, just...leave...ok?!"
nah...my spidey sense tell me it was a launch damage f-up or micrometeorite, something normal like that. maybe even a bug, a software glitch like the poor MGS or polar lander (inches, meters, what being difference?!?!? haha!!)
sometimes, i wonder if i'm the only conservative on teh intarweb. ah well, back to mah hogs and warmongerin'....
Just think of the few dozen extra troops we could've sent to Baghdad instead of wasting money on this piece of space junk! Harumph!
There's even a website!
Best Slashdot Co
I suspect you meant General U. S. Grant, or perhaps Sherman. It was Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia that actually broke the south's back. The burning of Atlanta in the movie Gone with the Wind was done by Sherman's troops, who cut a burnt swathe 90 miles wide completely through the CSA.
By contrast, General Robert E Lee was the leader of the CSA troops, in charge of defending the south and attacking the Union.
Think of the Irony!
Seriously, WTF?! Didn't RTFA, but I sure hope nobody's stupid enough to think Al-Qaeda has even an order of magnitude within the resources needed to sabotage a satellite. What were they going to use? Catapulted suicide bombers?
In other words, I'd like to know if it really is unusable. It is in plain sight, so the best approach would be to claim that it's dead. I have no idea if that situation is true here, but the tactic is ancient.
Additionally, if active, it becomes too easy for other nations to use its existence to denounce the US for its obviously active surveillance. If completely unusable, that option becomes very limited.
This is not my sig.
Everytime your government loses or mis-spends $450 Million, then tells you it was spent on some mythical "spy-sattelite" you go and believe them?
"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake."...Tyler Durden
Seeing as how everybody knew this one was going up and the likely placement, I'd say it was dead too. You get to launch ANOTHER spy satellite and have a little extra element of surprise. Do we automatically believe what the intelligence community says?
I just wanted to let everyone know that my left butt cheek is fine. Any damage that it may have sustained is not related to any terrorist attack or plot. We must be ever vigilant though, less the terrorist forces do manage to injure my left butt cheek.
This has been a public service reminder. Remember, be afraid of terrorist, you need us, we keep you safe, you have nothing to fear from an oppressive government unless you are an enemy of the government.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
How is this insightful? It's idle speculation, at best.
The underlying assumption is completely baseless. The US has never shot down another country's satellites. We did shoot down one or two of our own in the 80's to test an anti-satellite system that would be used in time of war, but right now multiple other countries operate a variety of spy satellites that fly over the US freely. Russia, China, Japan, Israel, the UK, and I think India, Italy, and France all have launched spy satellites.
And terrorism? What the heck? Does shooting down satellites inspire terror in anyone? It could properly be interpreted as an act of war, in violation of existing space treaties, but that goes beyond stretching the limits of the definition of terrorism.
by really hiding the true frequencies and mechanism of comms and protocols, which probably got changed by a firmware update at the last moment before launch, or the firmware maybe
had two protocols and switched to the new one once it knew it was in orbit. So now you have the real NRO secret boys using it, going woooohoooo. While the official
NRO department goes, "wtf it doesnt work" and get some money back or more from the govt for some more secret black ops.
Maybe its using UV lasers as comms or even xray comms, not normal RF.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
The space shuttle was specifically designed to retrieve spy satellites.
Retrieving things from orbit it the only good reason to bring that heave vehicle with you all the time.
Since we have this capability we should make use of it while we still have it.
Now at least they have an excuse to screw up WMD hunts.
Table-ized A.I.
Pocket change for the US war machine.
Was it to stop the communists?
Remind me of who Walmart and most of america do trade with, and what their government is......
Right....
China is buying out as many important resource companies and partners it can find around the world, even in bad countries.
China wont care about any human rights, a deal is a deal, for any resource.
China buys a lot of US debts/T-Bills, they still consider that an investment, (or a massive IOU claim for US resources if it tanks)
so they wont sell it down and cause the US$ to fail. Its more of a, "We can sell it and cause your dollar to fall so dont fuck with us", and if it does
fail then they can buy $900billion of US stocks + US land/companies or patents.
Global Elite have sold out, its not the country that has importance and power, its who controls OIL + BANKING and FOOD/WATER rights.
Id place banking as the final top elite who control all.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I want a refund.
Not working. Sure. I believe that. It's up there and it's, ahem, NOT WORKING. See, we can't really see that there's a pot plant growing in the backyard of the house that's 3 from the corner of Halsted and Magnolia. And we can't see that brunette sunbathing nude at Latitude 39.518 Longitude -71.426.
Right. The old "tell them it doesn't really work" routine. Gotta give those spooks credit for creativity on this one.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Articles like these always trigger my spidey-sense. Really, a secret US spy satellite isn't working? Wow, what a colossal failure for....wait, if it's for SPYING why the hell does anyone know about it in the first place?
True, usually the Air Force or NASA will say something about carrying specialized military cargo or some such doublespeak, but if it is really doing something secret, how does the information get out that it's broken in the first place? Aside from being purposefully leaked...
"Oh gosh golly darn, yep, our fancy schmancy communications spying satellite didn't achieve a proper orbit and now it's stuck in near earth orbit. Boy, are our faces red over this. Guess us dumb old American rednecks oughtta spend more time in science class and less time talkin about NASCAR and intellegent design."
(ok, they bought it, open the lens covers and start shooting pictures)
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Seriously, is it that hard to make an independanly powered/comms mini computer on a sat that has access to the main sattelite for status reports?
ie. someone small and light 3-5kg like a laptop but sealed. Battery lasting a few weeks. Maybe a small camera for visuals, use slow bps comms thats not
ultra directional. Say something like 300bps HAM setup, if the sat fails you at least can download telemtry debug status data to find out whats wrong.
IS IT THAT HARD?????
All it needs to do is transmit in ascii every status it can and repeat, 5000 bytes at 300bps is trivial with low power over 500km.
Drop down to 30bps as a backup cycle every 1hr if you need to. Even deep space missions have this.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
In reality it is all well and working fine, the US is now spying the hell out of everyone... even the girl next door (or is that especially the girl next door?).
If I were a hostile country or a 'Dr. Evil' type and I discovered how to knock out a US satellite I certainly would not run around advertising it.
:)
Also, if I were the NRO and I discovered N. Korea, Iran, Luxemburg or the Southern Peoples Liberation Army of Tonga
had found a way to knock out US satellites I wouldn't run around advertising it either.
Malfunction my foot.
Like I said, tinfoil hat time....
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I think everyone else agrees with you.
:(){
haven't you ever seen a James Bond movie?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Wait a minute! You tricked me! Those coordinates are about 120 miles off the coast of New Jersey in the middle of the atlantic!
Are there any cheap US spy satellites?
Your post completely fails to point out an increase in terrorist activity over the past 6 months. When I attempted to leave a message on your answering machine asking if you really were a terrorist, I received no reply. Such silence does not disprove that you may have links to Al Qaeda.
You have to love the reporting style.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Attacking a valid military target is still a de facto declaration of war. The question is: Who exactly declared war on us, and what are we going to do about it?
Pakistan, the U.K., and even Canada may "grudgingly accept" attacks on "Valid US targets." The US does not have that option if it wishes to remain an intact, sovereign state.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
what does the hubble telescope do when it is not taking pics of stars? i'm sure the can flip it around.. is that what google earth runs off of?
must run on Mircosoft. I wonder if they have tried rebooting?
All your points are well taken, but you assume that the reports are true. This is the black world we are talking about. Sure, you have typical DoD contractor screw-ups and everything will go wrong on a space launch, but is what is being reported what really happened. Is the bird really DOA or is that just good cover to get every one to ignore it? Are those orbits really not changing? Perhaps it is not a sensor test, but a weapons test so who cares where it drifts. (Anybody know if Kent has been working on his phase conjugate mirror lately?). I assume that this low of orbit will not last long, so what can you do with a something in space for a short time?
True, but all of those moles have had a MAJOR spy organization behind them. I'm pretty sure there have yet to be any terrorist moles at such high levels yet.
Always with the goddamned terrorists!
Give it a rest with the terrorists could've done this, terrorists could've done that already wouldya?
Only a yankee would call it the civil war... Down in the south it is the War of Northern Aggression :)
everything is working as expected...now publish that we have lost a spy satellite and let them think that we never had a working spy satellite in orbit...
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It is a common error to equate an objects cost with its worth. The satelite may have cost that much, but it seems it may be worthless.
Even by the definition that an object is worth what someone will pay for it, no one will pay the amount that it cost to make it in the first place. This definition is badly flawed when there is not a significant market for the item in question, as the inherent subjectivity of worth cannot be suppressed.
Now you know where that mysterious smell in New York came from.
Have they tried rebooting it? Whenever I have a problem, I always just hit the restart button.
Register the editry.
She was on a boat. It was a bit nipply out too.
I'm sorry but you're watching way too much "24" and doing way to little thinking.
By the same "logic", you fail to realize that Santa Claus has a base on the north pole
where he stockpiles all the weapons of mass gratification aka christmas presents over the year..
Just because you choose not to believe in Santa doesn't mean he doesn't exist. Most
likely he took out that spy satellite so people can't find out in advance
what they're getting for christmas.
See how silly you are?
As far as your increase of terrorism is concerned over the past 6 months, since the
sheer act of speaking up and speaking out against this government counts as an act of
"Terrorism".. you're right: Terrorism has increased substantially over the past 6 months.
It's just a success that hasn't happened yet.
(Thanks, Jon!)
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
So, this sat was damaged either by a giant "Laser beam" or sharks with lasers attached to their heads....
>>It has apparently hung in a low orbit for months now.
>"Hung"? as in hanging from something? Or hung as in "windows hung on me"?
Ah that Hung guy. Wasn't he on American Idol? Could this have anything to do with it? Could his awful singing have broken the satellite?
That's what happens when your satellite runs WinXP. That's a future warning to future satellite, Vista will do the same to your satellite. Blue Screens @ every day that finishes with a 'y'.
Sure, it's "not working"... just like "Misty" asploded into six pieces...
"When it was first launched from the space shuttle Atlantis on March 1, 1990, it was believed to be the first advanced KH-11 spacecraft," he says, referring to the top-of-the-line American spy satellite. "Within weeks, both U.S. and Soviet space sources reported it had malfunctioned and would make a 'fiery re-entry in the next 30 days.' Both assessments were wrong."
Richelson reports that the only people who successfully kept track of the flight were civilian space observers in England and Canada who watched a series of maneuvers performed by the satellite, including the "explosion" that Richelson believes "may have been a tactic to deceive those monitoring the satellite."
One of the observers who spoke to Richelson, Ted Molczan of Toronto, told NBC News that the supposed explosion took place on March 7, 1990, six days after launch, and was first reported by the Soviet press.
"Russia reported it had detected debris," Molczan recalled, "and NORAD identified six pieces."
The plan for stealthiness may have involved some clever trickery by the CIA.
"The satellite was exceedingly bright, brighter than the KH-11, and kept in a low orbit, only 250 kilometers (150 miles) above the earth, so it was easily visible," Molczan said. "Then there was nothing after the 'explosion.' They apparently needed the 'explosion' to be long enough so they could deploy the stealth masking device."
U.S. officials may have also used disinformation to enhance the deception, often discussing the need to develop stealthy satellites, never letting on that such satellites not only had been developed but launched as well...
TFA: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077830/