Spy sats now spy on other spy satellites

William Atkins
Saturday, 31 January 2009 21:08

Science - Space

According to media reports, the United States has developed a spy satellite with the capability to move around in space in order to inspect satellites that have malfunctioned and—what is even more interesting—to possibly spy on other countries’ spy satellites.


The U.S. Pentagon admitted in the middle of January 2009 that the Department of Defense (DoD) has developed two “covert inspection satellites” that have the ability to “assess damage to a failed geostationary satellite” and to “probably attack” satellites made by other countries.

Before their launch, New Scientist magazine ran the June 21, 2006 article “US military satellites to test new technologies.”

It stated within the article, “The micro-satellites will test a range of technologies for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US Air Force and the US Navy. These include avionics, advanced communications, fuels that spontaneously ignite on contact, solar cells and new software. No further details of the technologies are available.”

That same day, two satellites were launched at 21:34 UTC, on June 21, 2006, as part of the Micro-satellite Technology Experiment (MiTEx).

A Boeing Delta II 7925-9.5 carrier rocket launched the pair of MiTEx satellites from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17, Florida, into geostationary (GEO) orbit about the Earth.

One satellite is designated USA-187 and the other USA-188.

Both are considered “inspection” satellites by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and DARPA. A experimental upper stage (fourth stage), called USA-189, was also included in the launch.

Page two continues with the MiTEx mission.