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NASA Moves Forward With Mission Using Spy Satellite Telescope (spaceflightnow.com)

NASA has formally approved plans -- a year ahead of schedule -- for an infrared space telescope launching around 2024 to record unique wide-angle views of the cosmos, seeking answers to questions about mysterious dark energy and searching for habitable worlds around other stars, the space agency announced Thursday. The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope is projected to cost approximately $2.3 billion and should operate for at least six years. WFIRST's centerpiece is a 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) telescope originally built to allow U.S. intelligence officials to spy on adversaries. Instead of turning the powerful telescope toward Earth for a clandestine surveillance mission, NASA plans to repurpose the hardware for cosmic research.

4 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Langley by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thats pretty much what happened with Hubble - its an adapted KH-11 design using much of the infrastructure the NSA set up for that program, with NASA having to supply the optics and support systems.

    The NSA has also offered NASA redundant mirrors and systems that are pretty much identical to the Hubble layout but with better capabilities.

  2. Re:Seriously, am I the only one surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    You realize Hubble itself is a modified government satellite, right?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#See_also

  3. Re:Seriously, am I the only one surprised? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Informative

    The details are easier to come by for the oldest gear(since they've had the most time to diffuse and in some cases have been formally declassified because they are obsolete); but there are a lot of spy satellite launches.

    KH-1's had 10 launches, KH-2 7, KH-3 9, KH-4 26, KH-4A 56, KH-4B 17, KH-5 12, KH-6 3, KH-7 38, KH-8 54, KH-9 20. KH-10 didn't go anywhere; but kindly donated 6 72-inch optical mirrors to the Multiple Mirror Telescope. KH-11 superceded KH-10 and saw 16 launches. Information about 'Misty' and 'Enhanced Imaging System' is new enough to be... spotty. And those are just the ones with some substantial optical component that makes them a crossover with astronomy.

    One thing to note, in fairness, is that pre-KH-11, these satellites actually used film, with various re-entry pods to send it back to earth for processing, so their missions were of necessarily limited duration. Only the more recent digital imaging satellites even have the option of long term operation, with mission lifespans depending on what orbit you want, whether anything goes wrong, fuel supply, and so on.

  4. IC and NASA have always had a relationship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Take a look at the early history of satellite reconnaissance
    http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/collections.html

    From the early days, there has always been 3 prongs of the US space program: NASA is the public one with stated science goals, etc.; DoD has theirs which is a bit less public: ICBMs, Weather satellites, Communications; and then the intelligence community, which is very obscured.