Thursday, February 03, 2011
Keyhole Bird Launched
A Keyhole satellite was launched from Vandenberg in January. Strategy Page has a decent post that suddenly dissolves into sour grapes and bile.
The guts of an optical spysat are the optics and sensor packages. Incremental improvements in optics, solid state electronics, and batteries go a long way towards decreasing weight, improving sensor resolution and capabilities, as well as performance. These improvements allow more fuel to be carried resulting in a longer lifespan. Thus, the KH12 is rendered obsolete before it gets off the drawing board while the KH11 gets better over time until the latest satellite doesn't resemble the first in series except for form.
Yes, $10 billion dollars were wasted, but the banks wasted $trillions and ruined a lot of lives. The government doesn't look so bad in retrospect when compared to what private finance can do with a bit of greed and fraud. DOD program managers don't look as inept as FED economists or TBTF bank CEOs.
The guts of an optical spysat are the optics and sensor packages. Incremental improvements in optics, solid state electronics, and batteries go a long way towards decreasing weight, improving sensor resolution and capabilities, as well as performance. These improvements allow more fuel to be carried resulting in a longer lifespan. Thus, the KH12 is rendered obsolete before it gets off the drawing board while the KH11 gets better over time until the latest satellite doesn't resemble the first in series except for form.
Yes, $10 billion dollars were wasted, but the banks wasted $trillions and ruined a lot of lives. The government doesn't look so bad in retrospect when compared to what private finance can do with a bit of greed and fraud. DOD program managers don't look as inept as FED economists or TBTF bank CEOs.
Labels: perspective
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Most inneresting John.
The Strategypage people seem to severely underestimate the numbers and variety of US military/int sats.
This is one indicator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyhole_satellite
Pete
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The Strategypage people seem to severely underestimate the numbers and variety of US military/int sats.
This is one indicator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyhole_satellite
Pete
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