"Secret Satellites
A French space surveillance radar has detected 20 to 30 satellites in
low Earth orbit that do NOT figure in the U.S. Defence Department's
catalogue.
After 16 months operation of its Graves radar system, which can locate
satellites in orbits up to
1,000 kilometres in altitude, the French Defence Ministry says it has
gathered just about enough information to pressure U.S. authorities to
stop publishing the whereabouts of French reconnaissance and military
communications satellites.
The U.S. Defense Department's Space Surveillance Network is the
world's gold standard for cataloguing satellites and debris in both
low Earth orbit and the higher geostationary orbit at 36,000
kilometres in altitude, where telecommunications satellites operate.
Data from the U.S. network of ground-based sensors are regularly
published and used worldwide by those tracking satellite and space
debris trajectories. The published information excludes sensitive U.S.
defence satellites, but regularly includes data on the orbits of other
nations' military hardware.
The Graves radar, and a complementary system operated by the German
government, together are enough to pinpoint the location, size, orbit
and transmission frequency of satellites - data which the U.S. would
prefer not to be broadcast worldwide, French officials said.
'We have discussed the Graves results with our American colleagues and
highlighted the discrepancies between what we have found and what is
published by the US Space Surveillance Network,' said one French
defence official. 'They told us, "If we have not published it in our
catalogue, then it does not exist." So I guess we have been tracking
objects that do not exist. I can tell you that some of these non-
existent objects have solar arrays.'"
..........................................
The End.
Reg Curtis/VE9RWC
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:24 CST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0
: Sat Mar 02 2024 - 01:11:45 CST