Gray Rinehart
01-14-2009, 06:21 AM
According to Spaceflight Now (http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0901/14dsp23/), who got their information from the redoubtable* John Pike and an unnamed source on "deep background,"
In a top secret operation, the U.S. Defense Dept. is conducting the first deep space inspection of a crippled U.S. military spacecraft. To do this, it is using sensors on two covert inspection satellites that have been prowling geosynchronous orbit for nearly three years.
The spacecraft supposedly being examined is DSP-23, the loss of which was the subject of this SWF post (http://www.graymanwrites.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58).
Scroll down the Spaceflight Now story to the part beginning, "Details emerging on how the inspection exercise is playing out," and see if you're as amazed as I am that anything supposedly "top secret" (or even "secret") would be released in such detail. Where the heretofore unknown inspection satellites started in the GEO belt, the specific date on which the first one supposedly made its close approach to DSP-23, etc.? With the potential international ramifications, why isn't this front page news in the New York Times (said the guy who wrote a speech that ended up being mentioned on the front page of the NYT**)?
If it is true, then I'm pleased to know we're up there with technology to try to figure out what went wrong with DSP-23, and yes, to see what the bad buys and potential bad guys are up to. If it's not true -- and the description of Pike's globalsecurity.org as a "military think tank" is at least imprecise -- then it's brilliant disinformation and I applaud the effort.
So, either way, I salute my space brethren.
___
*By which I mean, in case the sarcasm doesn't carry through, doubtable again and again.
**May 18, 2005: "Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs," by Tim Weiner.
In a top secret operation, the U.S. Defense Dept. is conducting the first deep space inspection of a crippled U.S. military spacecraft. To do this, it is using sensors on two covert inspection satellites that have been prowling geosynchronous orbit for nearly three years.
The spacecraft supposedly being examined is DSP-23, the loss of which was the subject of this SWF post (http://www.graymanwrites.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58).
Scroll down the Spaceflight Now story to the part beginning, "Details emerging on how the inspection exercise is playing out," and see if you're as amazed as I am that anything supposedly "top secret" (or even "secret") would be released in such detail. Where the heretofore unknown inspection satellites started in the GEO belt, the specific date on which the first one supposedly made its close approach to DSP-23, etc.? With the potential international ramifications, why isn't this front page news in the New York Times (said the guy who wrote a speech that ended up being mentioned on the front page of the NYT**)?
If it is true, then I'm pleased to know we're up there with technology to try to figure out what went wrong with DSP-23, and yes, to see what the bad buys and potential bad guys are up to. If it's not true -- and the description of Pike's globalsecurity.org as a "military think tank" is at least imprecise -- then it's brilliant disinformation and I applaud the effort.
So, either way, I salute my space brethren.
___
*By which I mean, in case the sarcasm doesn't carry through, doubtable again and again.
**May 18, 2005: "Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs," by Tim Weiner.